The Test
by Katkid
Summary: sequel to Second Cry The former Digidestined have made it to Quewari...or have they?
1. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.And while I'm at it I don't own Coca-cola or Pepsi, either!Thanks and enjoy!

The Test--Chapter 1

_For crying out loud, don't tell me we took the wrong gate! _Daisuke thought, looking around him._What happened to the others?And where am I?This isn't Quewari--it can't be--at least not unless it's a ghost town._

_ _

Indeed, it appeared this was exactly where he was: an old western ghost town to be more specific.The sun cast an eerie red glow over the whole deserted town and a cold wind was blowing dust about through the streets.He was standing in the middle of a painfully quiet road and the dust was blowing into his eyes.In front of him was an old, run-down saloon, the doors hanging off their hinges and the windows all boarded up.The porch in front of the door sagged as though with some unseen weight.Tables and chairs inside the saloon were either broken or tipped over.Daisuke could even see a few overturned mugs of what he guessed had once been filled with whiskey atop a few of the tables.

_It looks like whoever was here left in a big hurry.But why would they want to leave so quickly?_

He shrugged and dismissed the thought, walking into the saloon, hoping to perhaps get something to drink.

Once inside, he could see more of what had happened to the bar.Areas on the floor inside were rotting and in one corner the floor was completely gone.The tables all had a thick coating of dust on them as did the chairs.

Daisuke climbed over the bartender's table and looked around, hoping to find anything to drink at all.He was very surprised to see a store of…cans of soda pop.The Coca-cola and Pepsi certainly didn't seem to fit with the rest of the "old west" scenery.

_How convenient.A little too convenient, _Daisuke thought, eying the cans with a thirsty eye.He picked up one of the cans of soda and turned it over and over.Nothing appeared to be wrong with it.

After a few more minutes of eying the can of pop, he put it back where he found it, using every bit of willpower he possessed and left the bar.

The only thing Daisuke could hear in this horribly quiet town was the whistling of the wind as it blew through the streets.The sun was nearly down and it was getting dark and very cold.In the fading light Daisuke could see a sign on the building across the street from him that announced in fading letters: INN.

_I guess I'll go to the Inn for some sleep, _he thought, leaving the rundown saloon and entering the equally rundown Inn.

Once inside the Inn he walked up the ancient stairs to the second floor, half afraid he would fall through the rotting wood.His footsteps did not echo on the softened wood and with every step he took his foot slid back about an inch on the slippery rot.He didn't even bother to put his hand on the banister--he feared that if he touched it, the whole rickety thing would crumble into nothing.But then again, it wasn't as though anybody was around to care. 

He reached the top of the stairs, looked back down and cursed under his breath.Hanging behind the registration desk were multiple keys.All the doors before him were closed and he guessed he would have to get one of the keys to open them.

Daisuke walked back down the stairs, jumped over the table and took one of the keys.Strangely enough, the key was not tarnished and he could clearly read the room number upon it--7.

Once back upstairs, he walked down the row of doors until he came to the one with a large seven carved on it.The key slid easily into the lock, almost as though it had been oiled.The lock also yielded easily and he opened the door.

This was the point where Daisuke got the biggest shock of his life: the room, like the cans of cola didn't fit.In fact, it looked like a well-kept modern hotel room.The carpeting was a cheery pinkish color and a large bed in the corner complete with flowery comforter and pillows to match.A dresser made of mahogany was in the corner across from the bed and sitting atop the dresser--and this was what had surprised Daisuke the most--was a television set.

"Whoa," he muttered while walking into the room._This isn't your average western town._

_ _

It was darker outside, making it difficult to see clearly, so he flicked on yet another thing that didn't fit--the electric lights.No gas lamps.No fire whatsoever.Electric lights.

A powerful gust of wind blew through the open door of the Inn and traveled up the stairs, sending chills down Daisuke's back and neck.He realized he was still standing in the doorway and quickly entered his room, shutting the door with an ominous click.

The carpeting was soft, that much he could tell without even removing his shoes.Now that he was in the room, he saw that there were many more features than he had first seen.On the bedside table (which was also made out of perfectly intact wood) was a clock radio.In the corner that had been blocked from view by the door was a desk and a computer sat on the desk.At the foot of the bed was a huge boom box with an assortment of CD's and the bed itself, as it turned out, was in fact a waterbed.

Daisuke sat down in the recliner that had an excellent view of the TV and removed his shoes, wishing he had a pair of pajamas.His wish came true when he looked in the top drawer of the dresser--a pair of pajamas was neatly folded inside and they were exactly the right size.

He changed into the pajamas and picked up the remote control for the TV before sitting back down in the recliner and flicking on the television.The sitcoms and movies were some of the most welcome things Daisuke had heard in a long time; they temporarily ended the eerie silence of the deserted town.

Eventually, his eyelids began to feel heavy so he flicked off the TV and lights before climbing into the waterbed.Although he felt like things were just a bit _too_ convenient, he couldn't help thinking that it felt great to lie down in the warm, soft sheets as opposed to being out in the middle of a blizzard or running away from one of the Dark's minions.Within five minutes he was asleep.

~*~

The sunlight filtered through the blinds over the window and into the room, waking Daisuke from his sleep.

He sat up in the waterbed and yawned before clamber out of bed and changing back into his clothes.Then he made the bed so it looked just as it had before he slept in it and folded up the pajamas before placing them back in the top drawer of the dresser.

_Wow, I take better care of some room in a ghost town than I do my own college dorm room, _he realized.

Finally, he was ready to leave.He picked up the shiny silver key to the room and stepped out into the rundown hall.It was like stepping into a totally different world.The room was so tidy and inviting while the hall was so unkempt and depressing.

When he got to the bottom step, his foot went through it and he had to yank it back out of the rotting wood.

Once free of the wood, Daisuke walked back over to the registration desk and hung up the key back in the same place it had been hung before and then left the Inn to explore the rest of the deserted town.

_It's not like anybody is going to care where I go anyway, _he reasoned as he walked into an abandoned blacksmith's shop.

The blacksmith shop was, like almost everything else in the town, broken down.But like everything he had previously seen, there was also something about it that didn't click with the setting.The tools were completely modern.In fact, it looked more like a factory than a blacksmith's shop--had there been no sign outside announcing the fact that it was indeed a blacksmith shop, that would have been what he had thought it was.The machinery looked threatening and out of place in the one-room shop with the dim sunlight filtering through the single window.It had once made horseshoes, bars for the prison--just about everything metal in the town seemed to be produced here.

_What is up with this town?_He thought.He could see several iron items littered about the ground.As with the bar, it looked as though whoever had been here had left in a big hurry._What happened here?_

_ _

As he wondered what could have happened, the light that shone through the window flickered for just a brief moment.It was enough to catch his attention.

"Hello?" Daisuke shouted out loud._Somebody's here, _he thought.There was no answer at all._Who else could be here?_

He knew that the flickering light could not have been his imagination.It had been too distinct, too conspicuous for him to have imagined it.

The wind was picking up again outside and it blew through the open door.He felt a chill go down his spine--though he wasn't sure if it was from the wind or from something else.Then something happened that confirmed his theory that somebody was here with him: loud, distinctive footsteps echoed through the room.

Daisuke stiffened and shouted: "I know you're here!Whoever you are you'd better let me see you!" before turning around to face whoever had entered the blacksmith shop.He was surprised when he saw nobody.What he did see was a set of footsteps beside his own in the dust on the floor.The footsteps went in a straight path and ended directly in front of him.

"Who's there?" he demanded."Hello?HELLO?"

He sensed something behind him and instinctively ducked, narrowly missing being hit by a horseshoe hurtling through the air directly for his head.It flew across the room and hit against the wall with a loud clang and Daisuke ran out of the blacksmith shop as fast as he could possibly go.

The next structure in the strip of buildings was the jail.He almost decided to forget about searching any more of the buildings and instead return to the lavishly furnished room back at the Inn, but muttered to himself: "I'm being just a LITTLE paranoid here" and instead entered the jail.

The jail was cold--too cold.It was like walking into a freezer, in fact.He walked farther back into the darkened halls, feeling a bit nervous about his surroundings.The bars of the cells on either side of him seemed to be glaring at him, holding some unknown secret and he could almost hear the grunts and shouts of the inmates of the prison being emitted through the iron bars.

He shivered and quickly walked back to the back wall._What's that? _He wondered.There was something on the wall that stood out.It was a small patch of blue that was rather small.It was fashioned into a circular shape and Daisuke's breath caught in his throat when he realized exactly what it was: a button.

But the button was too small for him to press with even his pinky finger._What does it do? _He thought.

Inspiration hit him suddenly and he bent down and picked up a small twig on the ground that had been blown in by the wind.The twig was small enough to press the button and he used it to do so.

There was a loud buzzing noise, then the ground began to shake violently as the wall with the button on it fell away along with the ground he was standing on.But Daisuke didn't fall too far--it was only a few feet before he landed on a bumpy sloped surface.

It was very dark in this new place and it took him a moment to figure out that he was on a set of stairs that led downward.The walls around him were made of packed dirt as were the stairs themselves.Tentatively, he stood and felt for the next step.It wasn't a big step at all and he stepped down to repeat the process.

The darkness seemed to press in on him and it was stiflingly hot and humid.After only five minutes of walking down the stairs he was sweating profusely.

And then he came to a step that had no step after it--only a hole.Daisuke felt around on the ground for a pebble and upon finding one threw it into the hole, listening for it to hit the ground.After several seconds, he heard the pinging noise.

_It can't be that big of a drop, _he reasoned as he sat down on the ledge, dangling his legs into the hole.With a sigh, he pushed himself off the edge.

There was a horrible feeling of falling for a few seconds and then he hit hard ground.Directly in front of him was a wall._No, wait; it's a door, _he thought as his fingers brushed the doorknob.

He held the knob in his hands for a moment before turning it.The room behind the door was lit with a red light from a pit in the ground and it was incredibly hot.The walls and ceiling of the room were made of more packed dirt.

"Who dares enter my domain?" a voice challenged.

Daisuke snapped his head to the left and saw a figure clad in black robes.He had no idea what he should say, but he was surprised to realize that the voice had been feminine.

"I suppose name is not important.Now then, what IS important is that we must fight."

Daisuke almost felt like laughing.Judging from the voice, this fight was going to be totally one-sided.His challenger would have no chance.

"So why do we have to fight?" he inquired.

"The Dark requires it."The robed woman took Daisuke by the hand and led him into the room after closing the door and the stated: "only one rule: we fight to the death.Winner takes all."

With that, the woman shed her robes.She was wearing a tight short dress that was a poisonous green color and her eyes matched the dress with the same distinctive shade of bright green.Her hair was a gold color that shimmered.

"Now we shall shake hands," she stated.

Daisuke felt her grab his hand again and gritted his teeth--she was squeezing his hand so hard she was liable to break every bone in it.

The handshake ended and the woman calmly said: "as a courtesy I must allow you to make the first move with no resistance.Begin when you are ready."

Daisuke was dumbfounded._She doesn't look like she could squash a beetle, let alone beat somebody up, _he thought.With a shrug, he drew back his fist and lightly hit her in the shoulder.

The next instant his hand, which he was now slowly pulling back was tightly clasped in hers and she flipped him back over her shoulder, making him land on the ground with a painful thump.

Before he could even make a move to get to his feet, he felt the woman's foot slam into his face and he tasted blood in his mouth; his lip was bleeding.

Daisuke quickly jumped to his feet and went after the woman, trying to do a jump kick, but she moved out of the way and grabbed his foot, flipping him back onto the floor.

"This is truly pathetic.At least give me a challenge," she muttered as she raised her foot to stomp on Daisuke's face again.

He rolled out of the way at the last minute and her foot instead pounded on the ground.As she was still unbalanced, he quickly got to his feet.Then she turned around and kicked him across the chest, sending him flying backward and knocking the wind out of him.He was dangerously close to the pit in the ground and now he knew why it was casting a red glow--it was filled with magma.

That was when he realized the woman was flying through the air, ready to knock him into the magma.At the last second he raised his arms in the air and gave the woman just enough leverage to miss hitting him and instead land in the boiling magma.

The last thing he saw of her was a surprised look on her face.The instant she disappeared into the magma, a bright white light filled the room and something burst out of the pit of magma.It floated over to Daisuke and into his hand.

Then the light died away.He looked at what was in his hand and furrowed his brow.It was a crystal; a pure crystal.

A door slid open in the wall and it, too was filled with a bright light.Without a second thought, Daisuke walked through… 


	2. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.Thanks and enjoy!

(A/N: Remember in this series Takeru is about nineteen.Not eight.Not eleven.NINETEEN!I was going to say the same for Daisuke in the first one, but I forgot to put that in.I will now shut up and start writing the actual story.)

The Test--Chapter 2

_What happened?Was I unconscious just a second ago?Ugh, my head hurts pretty bad.Where am I?Where'd everyone else go?_

Takeru sat up, then groaned and lay back down when his headache intensified.He was in what appeared to be a small hotel room.Only a bit of moonlight filtered through the closed blinds allowing him to see vague shapes and shadows.The bed he was lying in was a bit on the hard side and the sheets were stiff and starchy.The only other visible thing in the room was a hard chair.There didn't appear to be anything or anybody else in the room with him.

After a moment, he realized something was on his forehead.It was cold, very cold.He quickly removed it and examined it in the scarce light.It was a rag._Somebody must've taken care of me.But who else is here?_

As he was pondering this puzzling point, there was a bright flash of lightning accompanied by a clap of thunder.He could hear rain pinging off of the roof that was above him loudly and wind was howling outside.The room suddenly swayed violently and Takeru was tipped out of the bed he was laying in and onto a hard plank floor.

He stood slowly to avoid receiving another stab of pain through his skull and stumbled over to the door of the room.The room pitched again and Takeru grabbed hold of the door to keep from falling over.Once the room had settled somewhat, he quickly opened the door.

He was unprepared for the blast of wind and icy cold rain that hit him in the face when he opened that door.He was even more unprepared for the fact that he was not in a hotel at all.He was on a ship in the middle of a storm.

There was another crack of lightning, illuminating the decks of the ship briefly and Takeru's stomach plummeted when he noticed there was nobody on the decks.In fact, the decks were beginning to decay and pieces of the railing at the edge of the ship were gone altogether.

_Nobody else is here!_ He realized.A huge wave came crashing over the edge of the deck, drenching him with salty water._This ship isn't safe.I've got to get off somehow, _his mind was screaming.

Takeru stepped out of the room and began heading for the stern of the ship.It was difficult to work his way against the wind, as it was blowing toward the bow of the ship and the watery deck was slippery.Rain was pelting him and it was mixed with hail, which bounced off of his face, arms and chest painfully.Twice he slipped on the wet, rotting wood and got blown back several feet.It was taking all his effort to move up the halls.

Finally, he reached the end of the sleeping quarters and got to the front of the ship.The door of the captain's room was flapping madly back and forth in the wind and the steering wheel was jerking back and forth with every gust of wind.His first two attempts to enter the captain's room ended in his hand getting smashed in the flapping door.

Takeru held his bleeding right hand in his left for a minute, wincing as a spray of salty seawater found its way to the open wounds.Another gust of wind attacked him, blowing him off his feet and onto his back.

The ship rocked heavily and Takeru helplessly rolled toward the rail-less edge of the deck.As he was rolling, he passed a hole in the decaying wood.In desperation, he darted out his hands and caught hold of the splintered wood.He was now hanging half-on and half-off the ship.The ocean was churning below him and another flash of lightning glinted off of the troubled surface.Takeru felt as though if he let go the ocean would swallow him up and he wouldn't have a chance.

The wood was cutting into both his already injured right hand and his left hand, but he only held on tighter.The rain was getting into his eyes and the hail was pounding at him relentlessly as he tried to pull himself all the way back onto the ship.

Takeru pulled against the wind and rain ignoring the wood as it dug into his hands and was finally back onto the deck.He was afraid to stand up again lest the wind catch him off guard again, so he crawled back to the swinging door.

The door was still flapping crazily.Takeru caught hold of it as it opened and forced it to stay open long enough for him to crawl into the captain's room.

Once he was inside, Takeru collapsed, his strength failing him.His hands were throbbing with pain from splinters that had buried themselves deep in his fingers and palms.They were bleeding badly and three of the fingers on his right hand wouldn't move from when they were slammed in the door.

_They'd better not be broken, _Takeru angrily thought.The steering wheel jerked to the left, sending the boat pitching in that direction on a wave._And I'm going to stop that stupid wheel from doing that, _he decided.

After considering for a few minutes, Takeru removed his shoes and took out the laces.It was slow work for him, as his right hand was almost useless and the splinters were painful, but eventually he managed to finish and held two long shoelaces.

He then took the shoelaces over to the steering wheel and tied them tightly onto it, then onto what it was mounted on.This too was very difficult and the steering wheel kept jerking around after he tied it down with the first shoelace.Finally, he had finished his deed and smiled in satisfaction at the now unmoving wheel.

_I'd feel safer in a little lifeboat than here, _he thought as he felt the ship lurch against another wave._I wonder if there are any lifeboats?_

Takeru got to his feet and walked back out of the captain's room.It was much easier to get out than go in, as the door didn't swing in.The wind was blowing against him again and he began to force his way up and around the captain's room.

When he got to the front of the captain's room, there was absolutely no protection against the brutal wind and he was blown up against the window of the room.Hail and rain was hitting him much harder than it had before and he covered his face with his arms to prevent getting hit in the eyes before edging across to the other side of the ship.

Now the wind was behind him and it was hard to continue walking as the wind blew him forward.Even in the darkness, he could easily tell there were no lifeboats on this side of the ship either.There was, however a stairway that led down to the storage.

_Well, at least I can get out of the wind and rain, _he miserably thought as he climbed down the stairs.

Though out of the wind, he was not totally free of being wet in the empty storage hull.There was about three inches of water on the ground and it was steadily rising as water leaked in through the holes in the planks that formed the deck.

That was when the startling realization hit him: _this ship is going to sink._There was no denying it.If the water building up down in the hull didn't make the ship too heavy, it was only a matter of time before it fell apart.

The water sloshed around his ankles and he shivered, realizing just how cold he felt.His hands were throbbing again and it felt as though they were on fire.Blood was still dripping from his hands and into the water.

The ship was thrown forward on a wave and Takeru fell into the water.The instant his hands touched the briny water it felt as though hot knives were stabbing through them and he jerked them back out of the water.

He heard a loud creaking and realized the ship was already beginning to fall apart.Panic surged through him and he ran back up onto the deck.The wind greeted him by pushing him back, but he fought desperately to reach the front of the ship.

After several minutes of hard work, Takeru was back in front of the captain's room.Another loud creaking sounded and Takeru saw part of the walkway he was just on fall into the churning waters.

Then he realized that the crow's nest was still intact.It was insane, really._Such a tall pole should have fallen by now, surely, _he thought.

Another creaking and the walkway he had walked up to the captain's room on was completely gone.

Still battling against the wind, Takeru forced his way toward the pole that held the crow's nest.Oddly enough, the rope ladder was also still intact, although it was swinging treacherously back and forth.

Takeru instinctively began to climb up, as far away from the water as possible.The ropes, unlike the ship, were fairly new and did not hold the threat of breaking.Though as they were jerking around as Takeru was climbing them, they did pose the threat of throwing him off.

Once the ladder tipped upside-down, leaving Takeru clinging to it helplessly until it righted itself again.As he climbed, his hands were burning even more than they had been before and his right hand was of no use to him at all anymore.

After what seemed like an eternity of breathless climbing, he made it up into the crow's nest.There he sat shaking from the cold and trying to remove some of the splinters that were buried in his hands.

As he worked, a voice coolly stated: "so you finally have arrived."

"Huh?" Takeru muttered, looking up.A man that looked to be in his late twenties was on the horizontal pole that supported the crow's nest and peering down at him.Takeru noticed with a little apprehension that the man seemed to be muscular.

"What do you want?" Takeru demanded.

The man did not answer, but instead threw a long, thin pole at him and motioned for Takeru to leave the crow's nest and stand on the pole.

Once Takeru was balanced against the wind on the pole the man shouted above the roaring wind: "we must do this quickly, as this pole we are standing on will soon break."

"What do you want?"

"We must fight using these poles.The object is to knock you opponent off the pole.The winner gets to live.The loser dies."

"Wait a second!Why?" Takeru inquired.

"The Dark demands that it be so," the man replied."Now I advise we begin before we both die."

Takeru noticed the man was charging at him, keeping his balance perfectly on the somewhat narrow pole, holding his own pole in front of him, ready to attack.

Instinctively, Takeru ducked.Unfortunately, it caused him to lose his balance.He quickly grabbed hold of the pole with his left hand, right hand unable to help him.His own pole fell out of his hand and he heard it clatter far below on the deck of the ship.

"You've lost," the man calmly said, kneeling down."I'll do it slowly," he sneered.With that, he pried at Takeru's pinky finger, making him let go.Now he was holding on with only three fingers and they still had the splinters in them, making them hurt badly.

_No, don't let him do this!WAKE UP, STUPID!YOU'RE GOING TO FALL! _His mind shrieked.

With a sudden burst of adrenaline, Takeru kicked his legs and swang back up to the pole.Not only did he manage to get back on top of the pole that supported the crow's nest, he managed to kick that hand that the other man was holding his pole with.The pole fell from his hand and clattered to the deck.

"So I underestimated you?" the man muttered.With that, he easily scooped Takeru off his feet, ready to simply throw him off the pole.

Takeru struggled, making the man lose his balance.The man dropped Takeru onto the pole and fell with a scream of anger.

After the man hit the deck, there was a bright flash of white light and something floated up from the decayed deck and into Takeru's hand.It was a pure crystal, much like the one that Daisuke had obtained.

There was a cracking noise and Takeru noticed that the pole he was on was finally breaking.He turned and jumped for the crow's nest only to find that in the place of the crows nest was a door that was radiating a bright light.Before he could think about it, Takeru was through the door and the pole fell away…


	3. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.Thanks and enjoy!

The Test--Chapter 3

_None of the others are with me.I know that; I can't hear any of them.I hope that the gate to Quewari wasn't a trap, _Iori thought.He was on a hard, cold surface, but for some strange reason he felt as though he couldn't wake up from a dream.No matter what he did, his eyes remained closed and the world seemed to have a dream-like quality about it.

_It sure is quiet here, _Iori realized.Quiet was no overstatement.There was not a sound to be heard at all._Where am I?__My eyelids are so heavy…I can't open them.I'm so tired.So very tired.Why is it so quiet?_

Iori tried once again to force open his eyes, but they remained stubbornly closed._Am I going to be asleep forever? _

_I need to know where I am, _he thought._I've got to find out._Finally, he was able to force open his eyes and get to his feet.He was on a hard, metallic floor.The domed walls and ceiling of the room he was in were made of glass.Light faintly radiated from lamps positioned at the bottom of the walls.And outside the walls was water.Iori's heart sank._The ocean._

Of course, he'd mostly gotten over his fear of the ocean long ago in the Digital World, but now it came flooding back.This time he had no friends.This time he was completely alone.And this time there was no sign of any life at all outside the walls that kept the water out.

Iori felt his knees weaken and he sat down on the floor hard.He closed his eyes, hoping that maybe he could wish it all away, that he would be safe back on dry land and the blackened waters would be gone.But when he opened his eyes, he was still in the room with the glass walls.

_I can't let this fear get the best of me.I can't.That would be ridiculous, _Iori told himself._The ocean isn't evil.It's not.It's very beautiful._

He looked back out to the inky water and took a deep breath._Maybe it's not exactly 'beautiful.'But it's not going to hurt me.At least not as long as I'm in here._

The water didn't look quite as threatening and Iori felt a little better, although he still didn't like the idea of being trapped in the ocean.He noticed that there was a hall in the edge part of the dome and decided to follow it, as there was nothing better he had to do.

The hall was narrow and a little claustrophobia inducing, as there were no windows at all, but it was relatively short.The new room he was in was much more spacious than the previous room, although it was just as bare as the original room.The domed ceiling was unbelievably high and the metal floor stretched for what seemed to be almost a mile.The lamps did little to light the huge room and it took a moment for Iori's eyes to adjust to the dim light.

Iori began walking across the grated metal floor, his footsteps resounding through the dome ominously.He shivered, realizing for the first time just how cold it felt in this prison under the sea.It was definitely fitting to the atmosphere, as the waters outside were so dark and impenetrable.

As he walked away from the wall of the dome, all sources of light slowly began to fade away until he was left in complete and total darkness.A strong feeling of being watched invaded Iori's senses and he stopped walking and looked around him, wishing he could see through the darkness.

Very slowly, Iori began heading forward again, noticing just how conspicuous the sound of his footsteps were.He couldn't shake the awful feeling of being watched and he stopped walking again, trying to hear the tread of someone or something else in the darkness with him, but heard nothing except for the sound of endless silence.

"Is anybody there?" he inquired, through the darkness, trying to sound brave but instead sounding very afraid.He listened for any reply, but received none--until he heard the breathing that wasn't his own.It was heavy, raspy and drawing nearer to him.

Iori stood listening to the advancing breathing, jaw clenched for a moment before running for the light and for safety.His footsteps were reverberating loudly now and he felt sure whatever was watching him would find him easily through them, but the next moment he was back to the other wall of the dome and back in the light.

He leaned against the glass wall, eyes closed and panting heavily.The wall was icy cold, but it felt good to lean against it after his run.He kept his eyes closed for quite some time.If what had been watching him showed itself, he had little desire to see it.

Finally, he recovered from his run and turned to look at the wall in front of him.There was another hallway much like the first in the dome wall and he walked into it quietly.This hallway was also very narrow with no windows in the sides, but it was extremely long and it had many corners and different passages that were even smaller branching off from it.

Iori aimlessly wandered through the empty passages for a few minutes until he arrived at a dead end.He turned away from the closed off hall and angrily thought to himself: _how could I have been so stupid?Why didn't I stay in the main hall?Now I'm lost in this stupid place!_

He had no idea which way to go to return to the more open hall and the smaller passage he was in now had even more of the smaller halls fanning out from it.He was lost in a seamy web of passages that seemed to have no end.

Another disturbing fact was that the lights of the passages were becoming increasingly dim, though slowly.It was difficult to tell that they were growing fainter at first, as it was happening so slowly.It took a full minute for Iori to realize that the lights were dimming, as they were definitely not as bright as they had been.

_I don't want those lights to go out.It's bad enough being lost in some small tunnel, but being lost in the dark is worse!Not to mention the fact that I still feel like I'm being watched._

The lights suddenly went from dim to nothing in one moment and the raspy breathing Iori had heard only a quarter of an hour ago came back, approaching him again.

Iori ran blindly through the tunnels until he could hear the breathing no more and sat down, leaning against one of the metallic walls of the hall he was in.His heart was beating quickly and frantically._I'm surprised the sound of my heart beating doesn't give me away, _he thought.

Eventually, he got to his feet and continued walking in the darkness.He noticed a little uneasily that the ceiling of the passage he was in was sharply sloping downward.Already he had to bend to fit through, but he was afraid to go back lest whatever was chasing him caught him.

It came to the point of him having to crawl to fit through the small space.He didn't like this one bit.The hall was getting more and more cramped and as it got more cramped it got warmer and warmer, stuffier and stuffier until it felt as though he wouldn't be able to draw a breath in the awful heat.

Then he bumped into something ahead of him.That was when the raspy breathing began again.Somehow, whatever had been following him had managed to get _ahead _of him and was now blocking the hallway.

A low growl escaped whatever was watching him, shaking the walls of the hall.Iori flinched.He was terrified to realize that the growl was actually hurting him.It felt as though it was reaching inside his heart; no his soul and twisting and ripping, tearing and biting, scratching and clawing, murdering and killing….

And in that one moment, Iori began crawling backwards as fast as he possibly could, the thing right after him.He was utterly relieved when he could stand back up on his feet and run, though whatever-it-was was gaining on him.Its feet were clicking on the metallic floor, scraping against it like a dog's paws and Iori could feel its hot breath on the backs of his legs.

Iori then ran faster than he ever thought he could have gone, gaining just a few inches back from the beast that was chasing him.He saw a bright light and instinctively began running to it.The beast was following him.

It was with a sense of relief that he realized he was back out in the larger bubble, out of the maze of tunnels.The lights along the walls were turned up, illuminating every bit of the enormous dome like a huge stadium.

"Whatever-you-are you'd better get out here!" he shouted, feeling braver now that he was back in the light.

To his utter surprise, a mirror image of himself stepped into the dome.

"Who are you?" he demanded.

His mirror-image replied: "allow me to introduce myself: I'm you."

Iori shook his head and smiled wryly before replying: "sorry to disappoint you, but there's only one me and that's me!"

"Nope, sorry to disappoint YOU…There's only one you and that you is me because I'm me not you!"

"That didn't even make sense!" Iori shouted back.

"Of course not!Because you're not me!I'm me and only I can understand me!Not you because you're not me!"

Iori was feeling just a tad frustrated with this "other him" and shouted back: "didn't you say you were me?"

"That's why you SHOULD understand me!But you can't because I'm me and you're you but we're actually the same person so I'm you and not you and you're me and not me!"

"No, you're not me.I'm me.You're you.You see the difference?"

His reflection looked directly at him and replied: "what difference?We're the same, so I'm you, and that would make you me."

"But I thought you said only you can understand you, so that would me I can understand you because I'm you, right?"

"No, because you can't understand me.Only _I_ can understand me!"

"Stop contradicting yourself!" Iori yelled.

"I'm not!YOU stop contradicting yourself!Because basically you just told yourself to stop contradicting yourself, so stop it.Understand?"

Iori shook his head and blankly stated: "no."

"But you should because that means you don't understand me which means you don't understand yourself which means you're in one heap of trouble."

"Well if you would just stop contradicting--"

"And you're going to be in even more trouble when I bring out…" his reflection paused and another reflection of himself stepped out "the other you."

Iori smacked himself on the forehead and muttered: "why can't I wake up from this stupid dream?"

"It's no dream," Iori #3 replied."If this was a dream we'd all be having it because we're all you and you're both of us!"

"I'm not even going to try," Iori muttered.

"So that means we're not going to try and understand each other which means you don't understand yourself, so you don't understand us," Iori #2 matter-of-factly stated.

"Will you _stop _that already?" Iori demanded.

"Stop what?" Both #2 and 3 inquired.

"What am I supposed to call you guys?"

"I already _told _you!I'm _you_ and so is he!We're all Iori.Duh!" #2 explained.

"OK…Iori?" Iori inquired, meaning #3.

"Yes?" 2 and 3 inquired.

"No, not you!The other you!" Iori shouted.

"What other you?You mean you see Iori?" #3 inquired.

"OF COURSE I SEE IORI!_I'M _IORI!" Iori screamed."AND IF YOU MEAN ANY OTHER IORI'S I DON'T SEE ANY!NOW WILL YOU STOP IT ALREADY?!"

"But we're you.We can't stop unless you do, too," #3 said.

"Stop _what?_" Iori demanded.

"That," #2 said.

"What do you mean 'that?'" 

"What we're doing!" #3 said.

Iori sat down and sighed in exasperation.

"And if we stop trying to understand ourselves then you'll never understand yourself," #2 added.

"Fine then!I don't _want _to understand myself!" Iori cried."Just go away already!"

#2 and 3 frowned and #2 stated: "fine.If you wish."

#3 added: "too bad you won't be happy to know that we're both shape-shifters."

"Yes, too bad," #2 added.With that he transformed into something Iori had never seen before.Instead of seeing what appeared to be two of himselves, he now saw one thing that looked like a silver wolf with glowing blue eyes and another that looked like a black wolf with glowing yellow eyes.Neither of them seemed to be happy about seeing him.

_So **that's** how that thing caught me in the hall!There was more than one of them! _Iori thought.

But his thought process was cut short when the two wolves jumped at him.He ducked and the red-eyed one's momentum sent him flying into the glass wall.Unfortunately, the glass walls weren't all that thick.He ended up going _through _the wall and into the water outside.Since they were on what seemed to the ocean floor, the pressure was immense and the wolf was crushed by the sheer weight of the water.

Iori wondered how the water could have not crushed the glass domes, but his wondering was cut short when he realized exactly what was happening.Water was leaking in through the hole the wolf had created.Not just leaking; it was gushing like a waterfall and the hole was getting increasingly larger.And not to mention there was still the silver wolf after him.

It came plowing through the rising water, lunging for Iori's throat.Iori ducked, but this wolf seemed to have better agility and control when it came to attacking.It flipped around in mid-air and landed easily on its feet facing Iori once again.

_I've got to get out of here before I have to start swimming.I'll be at a huge disadvantage if I have to swim! _Iori thought.Already the water was up to his waist.

_Wait a second!I know how to get rid of the threat of the wolf! _Iori thought as the beast jumped for him again.This time instead of ducking, he jumped up to meet it in the air, surprising it.In its surprise he was able to force it down to the floor and gets its head under the water.

After a few minutes, Iori decided it was safe to let go of the wolf and sighed in relief when he saw that it was undoubtedly dead.Suddenly, the wolf glowed and in its place was a pure crystal.The crystal floated into Iori's hand.The next thing he knew, the floor below him had become a glowing door and he fell through the door before he could even think about it….


	4. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.Thanks and enjoy!

The Test--Chapter 4

_What is that noise?_ Mimi wondered to herself._It doesn't sound like any of the others.__It sounds like…like a cricket or something._She was lying on something scratchy and something was lightly rubbing against her face.It was stiflingly hot and the air had a heavy quality to it, heavy with extreme humidity.And it was loud.So incredibly loud.

She opened her large, hazel eyes and sighed, still waking up from her slumber.She looked around silently for a moment, then her eyes widened and she screamed.

The scratchy surface she had been on was in fact a long, narrow branch of a jungle rainforest tree.The ground was far below her.What had been rubbing her face was a huge leaf from the tree.And the noise she heard was being emitted from an enormous bug resting on the branch with her.

"Yah!" she shrieked, sitting up as a natural reflex.The action caused her to teeter on the branch.Quickly, she grabbed onto the branch to prevent a long fall that would either injure or kill her.

The huge bug let out another long, cricket-like chirping noise and Mimi shuddered.It was grotesquely large and she couldn't help but notice its pinching mandibles working in and out.She quickly kicked it off the branch in disgust and shifted so she was lying on her stomach, arms hugged around the branch.

_How did I get here? _She wondered.The initial shock of awakening in a tree in the middle of a rainforest was beginning to wear off and Mimi began to wonder exactly how she would be getting out of the tree.

Tentatively, still hanging on to the limb, she inched toward the trunk of the tree.It had vines growing on it thickly, intertwining.If she hadn't been in such a dangerous position, she would have taken a bit of time to admire the beauty of the pattern, but at the moment she didn't care.

Mimi reached forward and took one of the thick vines in her hand.She pulled on it, testing to see if it would break, but it did not.Ever so carefully, gripped the vines in her hands.Slowly, she moved her right leg so it was no longer being supported by the branch, then moved her left leg to follow.

She was now dangling from only the vines.Her feet found an appropriate hold and she began a slow descent down the trunk of the huge tree.Although the vines were thick, Mimi was afraid that when she grabbed hold of one it would snap, leaving her to fall to the ground below.

As if the pressure of climbing was not enough, huge insects were flying about everywhere.A few times she even saw some type of exotic bird flying around underneath the heavy canopy of vines and leaves.

Eventually, she reached the ground and let out a sigh of relief--which quickly became a scream of horror.A colony of giant ants were marching about, crawling over the fallen logs or anything else that was in their way--which included her feet and legs.

She shuddered and quickly ran away from the group of ants before sweeping the ants that were clinging to her legs away._OK, I officially don't like this place, _Mimi thought.She shuddered thinking of how she could feel the ant's legs moving against hers, how she could feel the hairs on each of its six legs prickling against her legs.It was a disgusting feeling and she hoped to never have to feel it again.

_And I always thought the rainforest was nice, _she thought.So far it certainly hadn't seemed nice.Mutant bugs and unbelievable humidity certainly did not bode well with Mimi Tachikawa.And another unsettling thing was the fact that numerous guttural sounds were coming from every direction.

_Maybe I was safer up in the tree, _she apprehensively thought._Well, I'm down now so I might as well make the best of it.Which way should I go?_

Mimi considered this point for some time before realizing it really made little difference which direction she went.She figured any way she went she'd eventually come to end of the rainforest no matter which way she went.

The sound of trickling water drifted to her ears and she decided it would be best to find the source._Maybe I can follow the stream or river, _she hopefully thought.

The source of the sound was surprisingly close.A muddy, slow-moving river was lazily flowing along wide, sandy banks.There wasn't an animal in sight so Mimi walked along the edge of the bank, moving in the opposite direction of the flow of the water.

Mimi felt a bit edgy.Something was definitely strange about the river.What could it be?She searched her mind, trying to place exactly what was so different about the river.

Then it hit her: it was quiet.Sure, it was still loud, but much of the noise was from a distance._Something about the river was keeping the animals away._

Mimi stopped walking and shivered despite the heat of the forest.Very quietly she nudged a rock on the sand with her toe.It rolled on the packed sand easily and slid under the dark water.For a second the river continued to flow normally, but then the waters began churning violently, frothing and bubbling.

With a gasp she stepped away from the water before her legs gave out and she sat on the ground trembling._Piranhas! _She thought.The water slowly quieted as the carnivorous fish retreated back under the water.

After a few minutes, Mimi stopped trembling and she got to her feet.She had just gotten one of the harshest wake-up calls yet.

Breathlessly, Mimi wandered back into the dense jungle-like forest.She welcomed the noises that engulfed her upon re-entering, though they were raucous.

Some type of monkey chattered, birds squawked, bugs buzzed…and one sound cut through the noises…a loud, piercing roar that went from a low rumbling crescendo-ing to an ear-splitting noise, sending chills down Mimi's spine.

The roar had been directly behind her.Extremely slowly, she turned so she was able to see behind her.From behind some ferns a pair of amber eyes peered back at her, reflecting a confidence beyond that of any human.A bit of fur was visible--yellow fur with black spots.

Mimi's breath caught in her throat: _a cheetah!_Was her first thought._No…a jaguar!_

_ _

For one instant they stood, staring each other in the eye, predator and prey.Then Mimi ran faster than she had thought she ever could have.Moments later the jaguar was leaping after her, easily weaving through the underbrush that was slowing Mimi down.

She could feel the jaguar's hot breath against her legs and gasped, terrified.With the last of her strength, she burst through a patch of reeds--and into a clearing.The jaguar did not follow her.

As Mimi recovered, a voice that seemed to have no owner calmly said: "so you have come at last."

"What?What are you talking about?"

"You have made it.Congratulations; you passed the test."

"Test?What do you mean _test_?" 

"Finding a way out of the jungle without my pet eating you.That was the test."

Mimi furrowed her brow and inquired: "the test for what?"

"The test to enter Quewari…"

The jaguar stepped out of the bushes and Mimi gasped, backing away from the giant cat as a reflex.But then the spotted cat did something she had never expected: it bowed.

If she hadn't been so afraid, she would have laughed out loud, as the spotted jaguar knelt on its front paws.It dropped a perfect crystal at Mimi's feet and backed away, head remaining bowed.

"Excuse me?Disembodied voice, sir uh…ma'am, whatever you are?"

"Yes?" came the response.

"What exactly am I supposed to do?"

A bright, shimmering door popped up in front of her and the voice said: "go through."

Mimi shrugged and decided it would be best to just obey.With that she stepped through…


	5. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.Thanks and enjoy!It's a long one!

The Test--Chapter 5

_OK…This is officially weird.Exactly how did I get on an elevator? _Yamato wondered to himself.

This certainly wasn't what he had expected Quewari to look like.This was, in fact, probably the last the he had expected.

_The elevator's moving, _he realized.It was indeed moving steadily upwards.The walls of the elevator all had mirrors on them.Buttons were mounted on the wall in front of him and one was lit.It was the top floor.Boring music drifted through a small speaker system on the ceiling of the elevator and Yamato sighed, wishing the ride would hurry.He wanted to see what had happened to the others, or if they even were still together.

After quite some time, the elevator stopped moving and the doors opened with a cheery "ding!"Yamato stepped off the elevator and into the hall outside.

_If this is Quewari it sure is…dumpy, _he decided.The hallway certainly looked like the building he was in was a cheap hotel.The carpet was faded, but even though the designs had nearly disappeared, Yamato could tell it had been an ugly, very unattractive pattern of fluorescent green and dark red.Along the area where the wall met the floor the carpet was beginning to fray.The walls themselves that had once been a bright white were now a dull yellowish color and the hall smelled musty, like bed sheets that hadn't been washed for weeks.

As he was taking in his new surroundings, all thirty doors down the long hallway opened in perfect synchronization.Still moving in sync, thirty identical heads poked out of the doors.They were all ladies that had black hair that hung down to their shoulders and ashen faces.Dark, heavy rings were around every eye and each face held the same expression: mouth pulled down in a slight frown, eyes boring in to him.

Yamato took a step back, surprised by the oddity of the scene.After a few seconds, another lady came around the corner of the hall.She stood out flagrantly from the others, as her hair was a fiery red color and her eyes were a blazing green.She was smiling and wearing very bright clothing.

"Hello!" she enthusiastically greeted."I will show you to your room."

Once she reached his side, the opened door nearest to him was slammed closed, followed by the next door on that side, then the next and the next in a domino fashion.When the last door had slammed, the hallway seemed very silent indeed.

"Oh, don't mind them," the lady bubbled."They just aren't used to you, that's all."

Yamato could do little more than nod and follow the lady as she led him down the corridor and around the corner.The hallways they went through were all of the same design: faded and dingy from what had been bright and very unattractive.

After a few minutes of silent walking, Yamato inquired: "so where are my friends?"

The ever-present smile on the lady's face faded slightly and she replied: "I'm afraid I don't know what you are talking about."

"Weren't there any other people with me?"

"No."

Yamato furrowed his brow and slowed his walking pace, wondering what could have happened to all his friends.His thoughts were interrupted abruptly when the lady inquired in her energetic tone: "what is your name?"

"Huh?" Yamato grunted, coming out of his train of thought.

"Your name," the lady patiently repeated."What is it?"

"Yamato," Yamato truthfully answered.

The lady nodded and responded with: "and I am Miss Nellar.If there is anything you want during your stay, just tell me."

_I'd like to see my friends, _he thought._And I'd like to know exactly what was up with those ladies back there, too._

"Ah, here we are!" Miss Nellar exclaimed.She removed a very large ring of keys from a large pocket in her baggy day-glow pants and flipped through, muttering: "Q-21" to herself.After searching for a while she came across a small bronze key and inserted it into the lock on the brick-red door.The lock clicked and she opened the door before gesturing to Yamato that he should go inside.

"Go ahead, go in!" she encouraged.

"Now wait just a second," Yamato argued, realizing he was allowing her to push him around."Not to sound rude or anything, but I'm not going to sit around in a room and do nothing to find my friends.I'll come back later," he said, beginning to walk back down the hall.

"No, you most certainly will _not!_" Miss Nellar vehemently protested."I advise you go into your room for the time being."

Yamato stopped walking and looked back at Miss Nellar._There is something weird about this lady, he decided.Though her eyes blazed with anger, she still wore the exuberant smile.__I'd better not mess with her right now._

With a nod, he stepped past Miss Nellar and entered the room.The door was closed behind him and he heard the lock slide back into place._I'll just wait a couple of minutes then leave._

But when he turned back to the door he let out a moan of despair.The door had no way to unlock it from the inside.In fact, it didn't even have a doorknob._OK…No problem…I'll just go out the window._

Yamato walked across the room and opened the window--only to find that it was barred.He staggered back from the window and sat down on the bed deciding he definitely didn't like this at all.

After a few moments, the telephone beside the bed rang shrilly, making him jump in surprise._Who would be calling?I doubt my friends know I'm here.Should I answer?What if it's that lady?Maybe I can convince her to let me out of here.I'd better pick up._

_ _

He reached over to the ringing phone and picked up the receiver."Hello?"

A drab, emotionless voice replied: "beware the draining…."

"Excuse me?" 

"Beware the draining…."

Yamato pulled the receiver away from his ear and stared at it, still able to hear the droning voice repeating the same phrase over and over.Then he heard static.

Slowly, he hung up the phone.He decided he didn't like how quiet it was in the room and noticed there was a television in the room.He sprang up from the bed and turned it on, happy to rid the room of the awful silence.

The only sound that came from the TV was a loud, continuous: "beeeeeeeeeeeeeep."He flipped channels, but the annoying beeping noise persisted.After going through every channel on the TV set twice he confirmed that the only thing any of them played was the obnoxious beeping.He snapped off the TV, feeling more like kicking the worthless thing out the window.Had there been no bars across the window he probably would have done so.But seeing as he was boxed in, he settled with simply turning it off.

Yamato looked around the small room and sighed scornfully._Why did I let her bring me here?__This is stupid._

He saw that there was a small intercom on the wall over the bed and he turned it on; hoping maybe he could speak with Miss Nellar, persuade her to allow him to leave.

"Yes?" came the cheerful lady's voice through the speakers.

"Could you let me go?" Yamato irritably asked.

"I already said no.Is there anything else you want?Something to eat, perhaps?"

Yamato was about to reply "no," but at that moment his stomach growled and he realized just how hungry he really was.

"Sure," he replied.

"I'll have something sent up for you, then.Goodbye." 

The intercom clicked off.Seconds later, a sharp rapping came on his door.

"Uh…Come in!" he shouted.

The door swung open and one of the ladies he had seen earlier entered carrying a tray containing turkey, gravy, bread and milk.

_Geez…This place sure isn't much to look at, but their food is definitely nice.As he was gaping over the quality of the food, he failed to hear that the woman was saying something._

"Hey, listen up!" she suddenly barked.

"What?"

"I believe you received my warning over the telephone.You obviously didn't understand what was meant."

"That would be right.What do you mean 'the draining?'" 

"It's--"and then she stopped and her darkened eyes widened before she quietly stated: "I cannot tell you what it is.You must find out on your own" before leaving the room.

The door closed and Yamato heard the lock click, keeping him in the room.He shook his head before taking a bite of the turkey.

The taste!It was the best turkey he had ever tasted in his life!Eagerly, he ate the rest of the turkey, then the bread.He was finished eating very quickly.

A mirror he had previously not noticed was hanging on the wall near the bed and he caught a glimpse of his reflection and gasped in surprise.His skin was pale--too pale.And faint black marks lined his eyes as well.His hair--it wasn't the usual blonde color.It had changed to a darker tone.And his eyes…they looked slightly clouded.

His legs felt weak and he swayed, falling back on to the bed.He was tired.Without his noticing, his eyes drifted closed and he lay on the bed, breathing deeply.As he lay on the bed his eyes closed, his lips became tinged with blue and his face grew paler.

_I should have known the food would have something in it, was the only thought his worn-out mind could produce._

He felt sick and very helpless and he could feel his stomach churning violently.It took nearly all his strength to whisper to himself: "don't throw up."

Using what little energy he still possessed, he rolled on to his stomach just in time to avoid choking when he did the thing he had told himself not to.

His mind felt fogged and suddenly everything went dark.

~*~

_"Beware the draining…."_

_ _

_"I believe you received my warning over the telephone.You obviously didn't understand what was meant."_

_ _

_"That would be right.What do you mean 'the draining?'"_

_ _

_"It's…I cannot tell you what it is.You must find out on your own."_

_ _

_The conversation between him and the dark haired woman drifted through his delirious mind, repeating themselves over and over._

_ _

_"The draining, the draining, the draining…Beware the draining…."_

_ _

_He felt so utterly weak.So isolated.He felt so tired.Too tired to speak.But the draining…what was the draining?_

_ _

_Why was he here? The draining….What happened to his friends?The draining….Who was the lady that had brought him the food?The draining….Who was Miss Nellar?The draining…._

_ _

_Darkness surrounded him and he was vaguely reminded of the time the demon had been in his body--only this was different.There was a light, a bright light shining just up ahead._

_ _

_But it was so far out of reach.So far…._

_ _

_He reached out for it, wanting to leave the darkness, but at the same time feeling so fatigued.So tired and weak…._

_ _

_The light was traveling away from him and he took a step after it._

_ _

_"Come back," he whispered."Please, come back."_

_ _

_As if in reply to his feeble request the light stopped, seemingly unsure of itself, then it drew nearer to him.But slowly….So slowly…._

_ _

_Then the light enveloped him and he sighed as its warm rays caressed his face, warming him._

_ _

_"What is the draining?" he whispered._

_ _

_"It is the process you are going through at this moment."_

_ _

_"What do you mean?I don't understand."_

_ _

___"Miss Nellar is not all she seems."_

_ _

_"But what about all those ladies?What was wrong with them?"_

_ _

___"The draining."_

_ _

_"But what--"_

_ _

___"Miss Nellar is the one behind the draining."_

_ _

_"What is it?"_

_ _

___"While those who come in contact with her become drab and monotonous, she becomes more exuberant and energetic.She in short, drains a person's energy and spirit until there is little more left than an empty shell of that person."_

__

_"How do I end it?How can I stop it?"_

_ _

___"There is only one way, and this you already know."_

_ _

_He nodded.He did know._

_ _

___"You are fortunate….Use what you have learned…."_

_ _

_And the light faded…._

_ _

_ _

~*~

Yamato snapped his eyes open and sat up quickly in the bed.It was dark in the small prison-like room he had been given.

_How long was I out? He wondered.When he had passed out the sun was shining brightly through the window, but it was obvious that it had set quite some time ago._

In the moonlight he could just see his reflection.His eyes were still clouded and his face was pale, but his hair had returned to its original color and his lips were no longer tinged with blue.Besides his reflection something else was noticeable: the door of the room was now open.

Yamato didn't have to think twice about his decision to leave the room.He definitely didn't want to get stuck in the room again and he had to find Miss Nellar.

The hall was just as he had left it, drabber and dumpier than ever, but he couldn't have cared less at the moment.He knew he had to get to the elevator.

After walking down shabby hall after shabby hall, he finally reached the elevator's silver doors.Unfortunately, they had been battered in and he could clearly see that the cables were cut, rendering the device useless.

Yamato turned away from the ruined elevator and was surprised to see the hallway behind him jammed full of people.Some were like the women he had seen earlier and others were men that had also been drained by Miss Nellar.

For a brief moment, Yamato thought they were going to throw him down the elevator shaft, as they were all glaring at him with their dull, almost lifeless eyes.

He held out his hands in front of him, showing that he was ready to fight if need be, though he knew it would be a futile effort, as there had to be hundreds of them and only one of him.

But then, without a single word from any of them, the whole crowd parted, making a path for him to move through.He looked at the crowd in astonishment and saw the lady that had given him the warning earlier.He didn't know how he knew it was her, as they all looked nearly identical, but somehow he knew.She was smiling at him broadly and with a motion of her head gestured for him to go ahead.

The crowd was following him as he walked toward the stairs, footsteps falling perfectly in sync with his.They followed him down the stairs to the first floor, which looked quite a bit better than the floor he had previously been on.But even though it didn't look shabby and worn-out, it was still unbelievably ugly.The bright pattern on the carpet was now so bright it hurt his eyes.

"Miss Nellar?" he tentatively inquired.

There was no answer.He stopped walking and rubbed his eyes, trying to relieve himself from the pain of the incredibly bright-colored room.Or maybe it was more than the colors.He had a feeling that the clouding over his eyes was worsening.

"Miss Nellar?" he repeated.

The crowd behind him was uncannily silent for such a large number of people.

"Miss Ne--" he was cut off when someone landed heavily on his back, knocking him to the ground with a dull thud.

_Why didn't I think of looking up? He angrily thought to himself.The brightly clothed lady was scratching him across the back with unusually long fingernails.He could hear his shirt ripping and he could feel the nails digging into his flesh._

Quickly, he rolled onto his back, surprising Miss Nellar and toppling her off of him.

Yamato got to his feet and noticed that the large crowd had formed a ring around them and was watching in complete and total silence.He also noticed that Miss Nellar was holding a handgun pointed directly at him, the smile on her face never faltering and making the scene even more disturbing than it already was.

"Miss Nellar, if you think about this I'm sure you'll realize how ridiculous this--"

"I told you to stay in your room," Miss Nellar blandly interrupted."I told all of you to stay in your rooms.Do I sense another rebellion?Tsk.I suppose I shall just have to kill the leader just like always….And it really is a pity….He had so much energy left."

Yamato realized what was happening just quickly enough to drop to the ground before the gun went off, sending a bullet whizzing just above his head.He quickly did a sort of half-crawl, half-stumble over to Miss Nellar and hit the gun out of her hand.After a brief hesitation, he picked up the gun and held it level with Miss Nellar's chest.

"One wrong move…" he warned.

To his surprise, Miss Nellar grinned and smugly said: "you won't shoot me."

"No?"

She shook her head and lunged for him.Yamato squeezed the trigger and the gun clicked--_it was out of bullets!_

He tossed the weapon aside and ducked.Miss Nellar soared over his head and landed behind him.Quickly, he spun on his heel and dove to the ground, pinning the psychotic lady to the ground.

It came as a surprise when he was suddenly flying through the air from Miss Nellar's throwing him across the room.

He was beginning to feel a little weak and thought: _not now…NOT NOW!The draining was getting to him again and he was feeling it._

Miss Nellar was coming after him and the draining now was dramatically slowing him down.It came to the point where she was able to knock him over easily and he was unable to get back to his feet.

_I need help, he realized as his eyes began to drift closed.__I can't do this alone._

Just when it seemed he had undoubtedly lost, a clear voice shouted: "wait!"

It was the woman that had warned him of the draining earlier.Once again, he didn't know how he knew it, but somehow he did.

She spoke again: "if you want him, you've got to get through all of us, too."

Miss Nellar's voice was a little unsteady when he inquired: "y-you're siding with him?A-all of you?"

Yamato suddenly felt strong enough to get back on his feet and did so.Miss Nellar was backing away from him, but found that the ring of people boxed her in.

"But--but this is impossible!" she insisted."This can't be happening!"

Yamato shook his head and replied: "you lose, Miss Nellar."

"N-no!"

"Face it: it's OVER!" came a voice from somewhere in the crowd.

Another voice chimed in: "that's right.Admit defeat now!"

Miss Nellar looked rather taken aback indeed.Then she gritted her teeth and screamed: "FINE!But you all do know this means I'll just have to kill you all now?!?You're all going to DIE!"

The crowd of people suddenly dropped to the ground, weakened to the point of collapsing.

"No!We've got to break free!" Yamato insisted, though he himself felt like allowing the darkness to overwhelm him."We've got to fight!"

"Sorry to disappoint you, but…" Miss Nellar paused before shrieking: "you LOSE!" and laughing hysterically.

Yamato felt the darkness pulling at him and he felt his body hit the floor.Then everything went dark.

~*~__

_ _

_He was back in the foggy realm and this time it felt as though he would never leave.It was over.He had lost, so utterly._

_ _

_Somewhere in the back of his mind a voice was screaming, "fight it!Keep trying!" but he couldn't even make a sound in this realm, let alone move out of it._

_ _

_All those people….It's over.All over.And I lost.How could I ever think of winning against her?I'm powerless, nothing, he thought._

_ _

_The darkness became thicker.Vaguely, he noticed it, but he just didn't care anymore.If it wanted to take him away, then by all means let it._

_ _

_But something was holding it back, keeping it from forever containing him.He saw the slightest pinprick of light and for a moment his spirits lifted._

_ _

_Maybe…I…can do it.Maybe… he thought._

_ _

_The light was ever so slightly stronger than it had been a moment before._

_ _

_"Yes," he whispered."I **can** do it."_

_ _

_The light was now the size of a flashlight beam._

_ _

_"I can."_

_ _

_The light was much brighter._

_ _

_"I **CAN**!"_

_ _

_And then the light filled him…._

~*~

"I **CAN**!" Yamato cried, opening his eyes and getting to his feet.

"What's this?" Miss Nellar said, facing Yamato, eyes glaring with scorn."You are nothing without the help of the rest of this motley menagerie, I'm afraid."

"You can't hurt me," he confidently said."I won't let you."

Miss Nellar looked slightly nervous and Yamato felt a surge of adrenaline pulse through his body.Miss Nellar no longer held control over him and he knew that if he looked in the mirror his eyes would no longer be clouded and his face would no longer be the sickly shade of white.

"Still, you alone are insignificant," Miss Nellar pointedly replied."You know you cannot beat me alone."

Yamato nodded."You're right.But…with the help of everyone here, I'd say I've got a pretty good chance, wouldn't you?"

"They cannot help you.I have drained them completely."

"Oh really?I don't think so," Yamato smugly replied.

Miss Nellar looked at the crowd of people and gasped in surprise and a trace of fear.They no longer were pale-faced.The dark rings around their eyes had disappeared and most of their hair was lighter.

The lady that had previously spoken to him groaned and sat up followed by somebody else across the room.

Miss Nellar gasped again and snapped her head around, looking to each of the people as they got up until every single one of them was back on their feet.

"So what do you say?" Yamato inquired."Let us all go and call it a truce?Or…well, I think we can figure it out for yourself."

"What do I say?I say…NEVER!" Miss Nellar screeched, cackling insanely.With a wave of her hand she sent the whole of the crowd, Yamato included flying through the air."You think I am weak alone?You think WRONG!"

She was at Yamato's side in an instant and her hands were around his neck, choking the life out of him.He was lifted off the ground by the neck, gagging.

But then a legion of people that had broken free of Miss Nellar's power was after her, forcing her to let Yamato go.

"This is my last offer," Yamato said."Truce?"

Miss Nellar sighed and said: "I suppose so."She held out her hand to shake his and they clasped hands.

And then she threw him across the room.

"When Hell freezes over!" she added.The multitude of people rushed at her, but she warded them off with another wave of her hand.She formed a fireball and held it calmly in her hand, looking purposefully at Yamato before throwing it against the wall of the room.

Immediately flames exploded outward, traveling across the floor.

"Get out of here, everyone!Quick!" Yamato shouted. 

The crowd of people didn't need telling twice.They were out the doors in seconds.Miss Nellar, however, remained as the fire blocked the door.

"It is too bad I won't be able to have them, but it was you I really wanted," she calmly sighed before running up the stairs.

Yamato cursed and followed as the flames began destroying the building.

They were soon back on the top floor and Miss Nellar shook her head and stated: "any minute now those flames'll be here and we'll die.But I don't think I can wait that long to see you finished!"

With that she ran at Yamato, bashing straight into him and ramming him up against the wall.He gasped, trying to catch his breath, as he had had the wind knocked out of him and crawled back toward the stairs.

It was unbearably hot--the flames were climbing up the stairs after them.Miss Nellar jumped up in the air, trying to push him into the oncoming flames, but he quickly rolled aside.

Her eyes widened in surprise and she sailed past him.

"NOOO!" she screamed, trying to stop herself before she was incinerated.

But her momentum was too great and she flew headlong into the flames.

As soon as she hit the flames, there was a burst of light and a pure crystal floated out of the flames and into Yamato's hand.

But the flames were still coming toward him._I'm gonna die, he thought.__But at least I helped those other people._

He turned around, away from the flames and saw a strange, glowing door that had materialized behind him.

It was radiating cool air like an air conditioner on an unbelievably hot day.

He took one last look back at the flames and jumped through without hesitation….


	6. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.Thanks and enjoy!

The Test--Chapter 6

The first thing Sora noticed of her new surroundings was that it was incredibly cold.And it was dark.Even behind her closed eyelids she could tell that there was little light wherever she was.And the cold…the cold was unlike anything she had ever experienced before, chilling her to the bone and back out again.It wasn't the type of cold you felt while walking through snow or on a cold, clear morning.No, this cold suggested only a vast emptiness that would never be filled.This was the type of cold that made you feel detached from your body.

The air reaching her lungs was strikingly cold, like a knife stabbing her with every breath.And it was so silent and dead.She was afraid to open her eyes, fearing what sight would meet them, but knew she had to.

Slowly, she opened her eyes and gasped in surprise.She wasn't on any world.In fact, she didn't appear to be anywhere.

This nothing was so dark it would have made no difference if she had kept her eyes closed rather than opening them.

"Hello?Is anybody else here?" she cautiously queried, hoping against hope that one of her friends was with her.She was terrified to realize that the sound of her voice was swallowed up by the nothingness.If anyone else was in this nothing with her, there wasn't much of a chance that they could hear her.And Sora got the idea that this nothing was enormous, stretching to infinity.

_I definitely don't like this, _she decided._Where am I?And what happened to my friends?And what about Taichi?_

_ _

Sora shivered, from more than just the cold.She was worried not only for herself and her friends, but for her husband as well.

And this feeling of emptiness!It was horrible.She felt incredibly insignificant, like a grain of sand on a beach.

"Where am I?" she wondered aloud.

It came as a shock to her when a voice actually answered her question with: "isn't it obvious?"

Sora jumped, surprised by the unexpected voice.She looked all around, as if the action would aid her in seeing who was speaking.But of course, she was unable to see anything in the darkness.And another unnerving thing about the voice was that it seemed to be coming from everywhere.

The voice continued: "now really.I would think it would be quite easy to tell."After a pause, the voice stated: "you are inside a black hole."

"E-excuse me?" Sora stammered."I'm in a **what**?" 

"A black hole."

Sora blinked in surprise and questioned: "you mean the type of black holes that are in space?"

"Precisely."

"Just out of curiosity…how do I get **out** of here?" 

"You do not know the internal structure of a black hole?"

"Well…uh…no.Scientists have never really figured it out yet."

The voice sounded slightly exasperated when it replied: "I was not aware that humans were so far behind…."

"Well, can you tell me how to get out of here?"

"Unfortunately, no.The only piece of information I can offer to you is that you are in an immense maze.If you can find your way out, you will be fortunate."

"But--"

"Now I must leave you.None of your further questions will be answered."

Sora felt even more alone than she had before.And she certainly didn't feel any better than she had before.She half wished that the encounter with the voice had never come about; as now she knew she was in a worse position than she had originally thought.She now knew she was in a huge maze, unable to see.

Very cautiously, she took a step forward--and smacked into a wall.She rubbed her nose, but kept one hand on the wall, trailing her fingers over its smooth surface.The wall was her guide, the only concrete thing in this strange reality.

She didn't know how much time she spent walking along that wall--it could have been hours or it could have been weeks.Nothing changed in this darkness.Nothing at all.

The next thing she did remember was hitting against a dead end.It wasn't the first dead end she'd encountered.She'd come across several before that.

But something in her mind was telling her that this maze had no way out or in.It was a maze that went in a giant circle with smaller passages branching off, never ending and never beginning.

That was when she lost it.She broke down, too tired to move any longer as realization sunk in._This maze was just a trap.No way out, one way in._

And it was so dark.Sora didn't think she could take much more of this darkness, pressing down on her, stifling her breaths, making it harder and harder to breathe, harder and harder to think….

She closed her eyes and fell into a troubled sleep.

~*~

Sora awoke with a start.She was still in the maze, still in the darkness.But something was different.Something….

The wall.The wall--it wasn't smooth.It had something carved into it._Stairs._

Without thinking, Sora climbed up the stairs.A bright light stung her eyes, making her blink.It was coming from a crystal.A crystal was emanating the light.

The light….It had to be the most welcome thing Sora had seen in a long time.She walked toward the crystal, only to be confronted by a cold, emotionless voice.

"I advise you stop right where you are, little girl."

If the tone didn't set Sora against the speaker, the phrase "little girl" did.She was 21 years old and married.By no means was she a "little girl."

"You aren't getting that crystal without a fight."

"Why should we fight?" Sora demanded.

"Because it is required.Now then….I suggest you look away from the crystal and at your opponent."

Sora turned--and just about fainted at what she saw.A creature that seemed to be made out of smoke was hovering in the air.But this was no ordinary smoke.It was thick and acrid and formed into the shape of an enormous woman dressed in long, flowing robes.Its hair was long and wild and its eyes were empty and soulless.

And then it lunged straight for her moving with a type of liquid grace that a human was incapable of.Sora barely managed to dodge out of the way in time.But by the time she had recovered herself, the smoke figure had slammed into her.She was knocked off her feet, but left somewhat unharmed.

"Care for some more?"

"No thanks," Sora muttered.

The smoke figure was after her again.Once again, it hit her, sending her sprawling on the ground--but it wasn't very painful.

When the smoke figure was coming after her for the third time, Sora realized how ridiculous it was that she was allowing it to push her around.As it swerved toward her, she held out her hands.Strangely enough, the figure bounced off.

Sora couldn't believe she had been scared now.

"Hey!" she shouted.

The smoke figure stopped, surprised by Sora's sudden boldness.

"Yeah, you!You're nothing more than a bunch of smoke!You can't hurt me!"

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, really.Come on, take you're best shot," she chided.

The smoke figure growled with rage and swooped toward her--and ended up going through her.

"See?You're just a bunch of stupid smoke!" Sora verified."Now if you'll excuse me, I think I'll be going."

The smoke figure was taken aback.

"No!Do not touch the crystal!"

But it was too late.Sora had already picked up the crystal.The smoke figure screamed as it was penetrated by rays of light and disappeared.

And Sora walked through a shimmering door that had appeared in the nothing: the way out of the maze….


	7. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do now own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.Thanks and enjoy!

(A/N: If you read Second Cry, then this will make sense.If you didn't you'll still understand most of it, but there's one part that refers to something that happened in Second Cry.Now I'll shut up….)

The Test--Chapter 7

_I suppose it's safe to assume this isn't Quewari, _Koushiro thought to himself._That is…unless Quewari is located in a cave, which I seriously doubt._

_ _

He looked around his surroundings for the second time, noting the rough rock walls and stalactite-covered ceiling.Strangely enough, it wasn't dark in the cave.A soft glow was being emitted, but where it was coming from Koushiro couldn't quite tell.It was a little chilly in the large tunnel-like hall he was in, but it wasn't freezing cold.The sound of water dripping echoed through the tunnel at regular four-second intervals.Apart from the dripping of the water, the tunnel was chillingly silent.

Koushiro found himself wishing he were with at least one of his other friends in this strange new place.He wasn't afraid in the least.But this place was new to him and he didn't like being by himself in it.

As he was surveying his surroundings, the constant dripping sound ceased to sound.For a moment, he didn't notice the interruption--he only realized that something was different.When he placed the irregularity, a soft hissing noise reached his ears.

It didn't take Koushiro long to piece the two events together.Something had stopped the dripping.No, not stopped._Dulled._The water was dripping on to something.And something was hissing.Something that had not been there before.

The hissing noise resounded and Koushiro turned, looking for what the cause of it could be._Whatever it is, it certainly doesn't seem friendly, _he decided._It would probably be best if I let it alone._

His decision made, Koushiro walked away from the sound of the dripping and the sound of hissing.It was to his dismay that the sound of hissing remained--only now its volume was multiplied.There were more of them.

He quickened his pace, feeling just the slightest edge of worry pressing on him._I can still get away from them.No big deal, _he told himself.

As if in direct contradiction to his thought, the hissing returned, once again increased in volume.The hissing was now accompanied with a rattling noise.

His first interpretation of the new rattling noise was that rattlesnakes were following him.But the rattling didn't sound like that.It sounded too throaty for that.And the noises were getting ever louder.

Now he was getting a little scared.He began running at a jog, trying to lose the sounds of hissing and rattling, but the faster he ran the closer they came.And the sounds were no longer all behind him, either.They now seemed to be coming from every direction.

Koushiro began to run in a blind panic.The sounds were becoming overwhelming, echoing through the cave and coming to his ears in one horrible noise.

Then he came to a dead end--a sharp cliff-like drop with a bottom he could not clearly see.He wheeled back around to face whatever was after him, but was met with the awful noises, still growing louder and louder.

He turned back to the drop and quickly measured his options._It's better to risk it, _he decided and quickly jumped from the edge.

There was a feeling of weightlessness as he fell through the air, but it lasted for only a moment before he hit something soft.He was definitely relieved by the soft landing, but relief turned to horror when he realized that whatever he had landed on was _moving._

And it wasn't soft._It was squishy.__He was on something **alive.**_It was twisting underneath him and he gasped when he heard the hissing noise once again.But this time rattles did not accompany it.

The realization didn't make him feel any better about what was happening.Koushiro looked down to the ground he was on and saw that the whole floor of the cavern he was in was writhing.And then he figured it out: _he had landed on a bunch of snakes._

Koushiro jumped to his feet and shuddered when he felt one of the snakes wrapping itself around his arm.He yanked it off and ran, disregarding the indignant hissing noises of the snakes he stepped on.

Once outside the cavern, he sighed with relief: the floor was free of snakes.Legs weak from the encounter, he sank down to the ground, back against the bumpy wall.

Then he noticed something was on his leg.He cried out in surprise and brushed it off: it was another snake.It hissed back at him, but slithered off, back to the cavern.

After a couple of minutes, Koushiro regained enough strength to get back on his feet.The tunnel went in only two directions--either back to the cavern (which he definitely wasn't going to return to any time soon) or away from it.It was an easy decision to walk away from the snake-filled cavern.

It was after a few minutes of walking that the hissing accompanied by rattling sounded--right in front of him.

_Great choice, _he thought._Go back to the snakes or go ahead to whatever was making the rattling noise._

He decided to confront what had originally been chasing him this time and walked forward.

In front of him was a small lizard, hissing to make a rattle-like noise.The lizard stood on its hind legs, balanced by its very long tail.About five more of the small lizards were grouped around the first, all hissing at Koushiro.

_They don't look **too **threatening, _he observed.The rattle-like hissing suddenly came from _behind _him.

Koushiro turned to be confronted with at least thirty more of the lizards, all hissing at him.

_Then again, I could be wrong… _he thought.

A few of the closest ones took a leap for him and he moved out of the way.

_Those things can sure jump! _Koushiro noticed as he dodged more of the lizards.

He decided to try and break through the line of five lizards in front of him rather than try and stand up to the huge group of lizards behind him.

Koushiro moved quickly, surprising the lizards.He was able to jump over them easily and ran down the hallway, the sound of hundreds of tiny claws scratching the ground as the lizards pursued him ringing in his ears.

As he ran through the tunnel, it suddenly opened out to a huge room.Once he entered the room, a gigantic boulder fell over the doorway, blocking the way out and keeping the lizards out.

For a moment, he felt relieved, but the relief was short-lived when he saw something he'd hoped he would never have to see again.

_Never expected these beasts existed, let alone thought to see two in one day, _he thought.

It was a dragon.

But this dragon was quite a bit different from the first.It had a fan-like flap of skin all around its neck with a pattern of blue and brown that was both beautiful and deadly.It was a faint brown color with bright blue spots all down its back.It was serpentine, unlike the first dragon and it had no wings, but that didn't prevent it from hovering through the air by some other means that Koushiro could not figure out.

Then Koushiro noticed something that made him feel a bit braver: the dragon appeared to be sleeping.Though it was floating some ten feet off the ground, it was sleeping.

_Maybe I can get out of here quietly, _Koushiro thought.

He began to edge past the serpentine dragon, careful not to shuffle his feet and to refrain from making any noises.He kept his eyes on the scaly, snake-like dragon, almost afraid to blink as he walked past it and he held his breath as he made it past.

Koushiro sighed in relief:he'd made it without waking up the deadly dragon.But unfortunately, there was no way out of the room.There was, however, a large, double-edged sword simply lying on the ground.There were also several creamy white, oval eggs nearby.He was in a nest of some sort.

And that was when he felt something on his shoulder.Koushiro turned around very slowly and froze.The dragon hadn't woken up, but the tip of its long tail had moved and was now resting on his shoulder.As he watched, the dragon shifted again and the tail wrapped itself around his arm.

Very slowly, he began to unwind the tail from his arm.The dragon snorted and he stopped, afraid he'd woken it.But it remained sleeping and he continued unwrapping the tail.Just as he finished unwinding it, the dragon shifted once again and he was pinned between the wall and the tail.

And then the dragon woke up.It took one look at his and roared in rage.Koushiro looked down and saw that he was still in the nest.

_That dragon…this must be its--her nest.She must be worried about her babies…, _Koushiro realized.

The dragon inhaled and blew a stream of bright fire his way.Koushiro jumped aside and the flames hit the eggs.

_Then again, I could be wrong._

_ _

When the smoke cleared, the eggs were charred black.If they had been capable of producing life before, they certainly weren't going to produce any baby dragons now.

The dragon floated so that it was between the nest and Koushiro, blocking the one weapon of the room from access before blowing more fire at Koushiro.

Again, Koushiro dodged, but not quite quickly enough.Sparks from the fire hit his shoulder and arms, stinging painfully, but not badly.

_How am I going to get the sword? _Koushiro wondered.There weren't many options._I can stay here and get charbroiled or I can make a move for the sword and get roasted.Great selection._

After dodging another jet of flames, Koushiro made his decision: _if I'm going to die, might as well make it honorable and try to get the sword.I've got the element of surprise.The dragon won't expect me to run right at it._

_ _

Koushiro shouted out as loudly as he could before making a dash for the nest.The dragon growled in surprise as Koushiro dove under it.It took a breath to blow out more flames.There was no possible way it could miss…unless….

Just as the dragon opened her mouth, Koushiro twisted away from the dragon, as far to the left as he could go and the dragon missed her mark and instead hit herself.

She screamed in anger and pain as she began burning and Koushiro watched as half of the dragon's body fell away.

_Well, at least that's over…._

But then a roar of rage filled the cavern and Koushiro watched in revulsion as the half of the dragon left unscorched came after him.It was little more than the head and a few feet of the body past the fringe (as the snout was very long), and yet it was still after him.

Koushiro quickly picked up the sword and held it in front of him, trying to provide protection from the attacking beast.It was coming for him, closer and closer….He closed his eyes as it opened its jaws.

And then there was a scream--not a roar, but a _scream _of agony heard and Koushiro opened his eyes to see the sword he had been holding embedded in the dragon's skull.He shuddered and dropped the sword, which was now heavy with the weight of the dragon and stepped over the carcass.

Something bright suddenly shined into the cavern and Koushiro shielded his eyes, trying to see what it was.After some squinting, he was able to see that it was a pure crystal.No sooner had he made his realization when the crystal floated over to him and into his hands.

He turned back to what had been the dragon's nest before it had charred it and jumped in surprise.A large, shimmering door had appeared in the wall.

Seeing as there was no other way out of the room, Koushiro walked through the door….


	8. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.Thanks and enjoy!

The Test--Chapter 8

Miyako's eyes snapped open and she sat straight up with a short, startled gasp.She felt as though she had just awoken from a nightmare, though for the life of her she couldn't remember a thing about the dream.

Pieces of what had happened slowly returned to her._The gate…I…I was going through a gate to…to…oh, I can't remember.I was with somebody…a lot of somebody's…my friends.But where…where were we going?It was…Quewari!Now I remember!_

_ _

Quite unexpectedly, Miyako found herself falling into cold water._Deep cold water, at that.She quickly began to tread water and returned to the surface, coughing and spluttering.For the first time she noticed her surroundings._

She was in the middle of a small lake that was surrounded by trees.Balmy sunlight filtered down onto the trees and water, but it wasn't hot.It felt a lot like autumn, though the leaves of the trees were vibrantly green.A one-person inflatable mattress was floating nearby and Miyako realized she must have been sleeping on it.

While she was still getting used to the idea that she had walked through a gate in a cave and had ended up in the middle of a lake in a forest when a loud, explosive noise sounded._A gunshot._

Miyako apprehensively looked about._Must be hunters, she decided.But the shot had sounded so close.__Too close._

Another shot tore through the air and Miyako heard something whiz over her head very quickly._It was a bullet._

_But that's not right, she thought.__There aren't any animals out here in the lake.And then she drew on the chilling truth: __maybe they're not hunting animals…maybe they're hunting…humans.Maybe they're hunting…me…._

_ _

As if to confirm her conclusion, a third shot rang out and another bullet hit the water in front of her.

_What can I do? She wondered.__I've got to get out of here.Now._

She quickly dove down under the water, hoping to get out of her attacker's sight, or at least obscure their vision of her.She could hear bullets racing past her in the water, spurring her to swim quicker than before.

Occasionally she would resurface to draw a breath before diving back under and continuing her swim for the other bank.

After what seemed like an eternity, her feet hit the sandy bottom and she stumbled through the waist-high water, trying to make it to the trees before her attacker caught sight of her.

Somehow, she reached the trees and safety.Very slowly, she leaned against one of the trees, sliding down its trunk until she was sitting on the ground, trembling and breathing hard.

_Calm down, she told herself.__Don't do this.And another part of her answered: __how can you be calm?Someone's trying to kill you!_

_ _

After only five minutes after Miyako arrived in the forest, she felt as though she was being watched.She held her breath, keeping absolutely still and directed her eyes at the thicket directly in front of her.Her hunter was back.

_Now I know how a deer feels.Predator and prey.Not a nice feeling, she decided._

A very faint noise drifted to Miyako's ears and she stiffened._It was the sound of a rifle being cocked.She saw some of the leaves directly in front of her stir ever so slightly.The movement was so small she almost thought it was her imagination.But something wasn't right about the leaves.Something was different._

A paroxysm of fear overtook Miyako as she realized what was wrong with the leaves.There wasn't anything directly wrong with the leaves themselves.It was what they were around…what they were _concealing that made them different.Barely visible from behind the green leaves was a small, black, round hole.__The hole was the end of the rifle._

There was no way anybody could miss shooting her from that close._I'm going to die, she thought.__I'm going to die.I can't believe it.I'm going to die. _

The sound of the rifle being cocked a second time drifted to Miyako's ears and she felt her throat clog with fear.Cold sweat dripped down her face and back and her legs felt useless, as though they wouldn't move at all if she tried.

Before she knew what she was doing, Miyako had jumped to her feet and grabbed hold of the end of the gun, forcing it upward.It exploded, sending a deadly bullet up into the air.Then she was running, running faster than she had ever thought she could go.

She heard a voice quietly curse and heard the gun go off a second time.Instinctively, she dropped to the ground--just in time to avoid another bullet.

Miyako was too terrified to get back to her feet and she crawled on the ground, slipping on the loose dirt.A small, steep hill was in front of her.She had to get over it, but while she was climbing it she would be totally exposed.

Very quickly, she stopped crawling along the ground and lay down on her stomach, pressing as close to the ground as she could.The grass and weeds sheltered her from view of the hunter for the moment and her hope was that he would miss her and run by her, thinking she had run around the hill instead of up onto it.

Feet pounded by, less than ten feet away from where she lay and she held her breath as the hunter ran past.Then she counted to five before exploding out of the grass and beginning to run up the hill as fast as she could.

The hill was more difficult to climb than she had originally thought and her feet slipped on the loose soil below her as she attempted to get to the top.To prevent herself from falling, she grabbed hold of a tree root that jutted out of the ground.Then she continued climbing.

_Almost there, she thought.The forest had gotten quiet.__Too quiet.She reached the top of the hill and was shocked to find the reason the forest had gotten so quiet.The hunter stood directly in front of her, gun leveled and triumphant smile on his face._

"Y-you don't _really want to kill me…do you?" Miyako squeaked._

"Too bad you don't pass the test," the hunter smirked."You failed."

He pulled the trigger, but nothing happened.The gun wasn't loaded!

Miyako didn't need another second--she jumped off of the hill and landed heavily on her feet.After stumbling for a moment, she ran as quickly as possible and escaped the hunter once again.

_I can't keep doing this, she thought.__Sooner or later, he's going to get me._

Miyako stopped running when she kicked something._It was a knife.And there wasn't only a knife.A piece of rope was curled up beside it.The two items were at the foot of a thin, reedy tree._

It didn't take Miyako long to figure out what she could do with the three things in front of her.Within minutes she had rigged up a trap, which if she were lucky would eliminate the threat of the hunter.

Seconds after she had set up the trap, she heard the hunter coming after her.She hid behind a very large and old tree and waited.

_Keep going, she thought.__Keep going.One more step…._

The hunter stopped and Miyako felt like screaming in frustration._GO! She thought._

_Why isn't he moving?Why won't he go?_

_ _

Then the hunter took a final step--and broke the rope that held the tree down.The tree snapped up, causing the knife that was attached to the end of the rope to fly through the air and hit the hunter.

Of course, Miyako couldn't see it happen, as she was hiding, but she did see a bright glow and was surprised when a pure crystal floated into her hand.

And then she was falling….Falling through a shimmering door that had opened behind her in the tree she had been leaning on….


	9. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.Thanks and enjoy!

The Test--Chapter 9

_Something went wrong.I'm separated from the others and I don't think this is Quewari.One thing's for sure.I've got to get out of here, or at least find shelter, _Jyou thought, while taking in his surroundings.

There wasn't a whole lot to take in, really.The sun blared down on Jyou and he vaguely wished he had suntan lotion, though he doubted even lotion with SPF 100 would be sufficient to prevent sunburn out here.Nearly the only thing around was sand--and lots of it.The sand was formed into dunes and seemed so bright it could have been reflecting the sun.Other than the occasional stunted cactus, there was absolutely nothing around; unless you counted the two large buzzards circling high overhead something.

Jyou looked around, wondering what they were circling and his stomach twisted when he realized that it was he they were circling.

_I'm not going to die, _he thought, taking another look up at the birds._But they sure seem to think I'm going to._

As if he expected them to understand him, Jyou shouted: "go away!I'm not dying any time soon!"

His shouting caused the birds to turn tail and fly away.

"That's right!I'm still alive!Now get out of here!" he shouted after them."But I won't be for long if I don't get out of here soon," he silently added.

Jyou looked around once more and groaned in frustration.Somehow in his observation of his surroundings, he had failed to notice the road behind him.A road sign across the deserted street announced: Highway 74.

_Well, I guess all I've got to do is follow the road.Sooner or later I'll end up in civilization, _he realized.

Jyou decided to travel to his right, reasoning that either way he traveled would take him where he needed to go.

The heat of the sun seemed to increase with every step he took and sweat ran down his face and back.His blue hair was matted to his head and the sweatshirt he had been wearing, though perfect for the snow he had been traveling through earlier, was unbearably hot for this desert he was walking through now.He quickly slipped it over his head, leaving only a white tee-shirt on.

After a half hour of trudging through the unbearable heat, he came upon a beat-up trailer.It had once been a creamy white color, but most of the paint had either chipped off or been stained an ugly brown color.The door had numerous dents in it and most of the windows were cracked.One window was gone completely, the hole covered with saran wrap.

_How can anyone live in **that**? _Jyou wondered._If it were a restaurant the board of health would shut it down.Who would want to live out **here** anyway?_

_ _

Before Jyou could take another step toward the trailer, the door snapped open and a raucous voice shouted: "get outta here!I don't want none of your kind out here!"As the words were spoken, a man stumbled out of the trailer, shotgun in hand.

Jyou recoiled, surprised by the man's sudden appearance and a little intimidated by his gun.The man himself didn't look to threatening.He was wearing a ratty white tank top and baggy shorts.He was a little overweight and he had a fair amount of stubble on his chin.His dark hair was extremely greasy.

"What are you talking about?" Jyou questioned, backing away from the man.

The man squinted against the sunlight and replied: "aw, I'm sorry.Thought you were one of them damn "inspectors."God, I hate them."He dropped the arm that held the gun down to his side and inquired: "why you out here?No one comes out here unless you count them morons that call themselves "inspectors.""

"I'm not exactly sure why I'm here.I'll just go on my way if that's all right with you."

"Naw, come inside.It's hot out there.'Sides, the nearest place you can rest aint for another 30 miles."

"No, really.I'll be fine."

"Them birds there seem to think otherwise," the man replied, pointing to the buzzards that had returned to circle above Jyou's head. 

Jyou sighed and decided it would be best if he agreed with whatever this man said at them moment, as he still held the gun in his hand.He nodded and the grungy man smiled before holding the dented door of the trailer open.

Once inside, Jyou was overwhelmed by the smell of dirty clothes._I suppose it shouldn't surprise me, judging by the way the trailer looks this is pretty natural.__At least there's air-conditioning._

He was suddenly startled out of his thoughts when he heard the man query: "so what's your name?"

Jyou considered refusing to tell for a moment, but decided against it, as the man was just putting the gun up.He didn't want to tell this guy his real name, but then again, if he knew something about his friends, maybe he should tell the truth….

There were so many options, but none of them seemed to be the right one.Finally, he decided to risk telling the truth, hoping maybe to hear something about his friends.

"I'm Jyou Kido."

"Nice to meet ya, Jyou Kido.I'm Stan Whittings.Go ahead, sit down!"

_Well, he seems friendly enough, but I can't get over the fact that he's got a gun.Plus, he seems to be just a **little** paranoid._As Jyou was thinking, he failed to hear Stan talking to him and accidentally interrupted with: "hey, who were those inspectors you were talking about?"

Jyou immediately regretted saying it.Stan's face suddenly turned purple with rage and his eyes took on a crazed, angry look.He shouted: "I knew it!I should've known you were in on it, too!"

"No!I didn't mean anything!I was just wondering!" Jyou defended.

"You're just like them "investigators" that come out here!Just like 'em!It's always "can I just ask a few questions, _Mr_. Whittings?" or "just a few harmless questions, Mr. Whittings!"Well, I'm sick of being their little question-answerer!I won't have it!"

Jyou quickly got up from the seat he was in and backed toward the door, Stan herding him in the direction as well.

"That's right!You'd better get the hell outta here!And you can go back and tell them people at the "agency" to do the same!" Mr. Whittings screamed as Jyou reached for the handle.

Suddenly, the whole trailer rocked violently, sending both of them off their feet.Stan's expression quite suddenly changed from angry to fearful.He muttered a steady stream of profanities before pushing past Jyou and charging out the door.

Jyou was about to follow, but Stan slammed the door shut after him.He heard Stan shout: "get offa there, ya big son of a--" and then Stan's voice was cut off before he could finish the insult.A loud growling noise traveled to Jyou's ears and he recoiled in horror when he saw blood raining onto the sand around the trailer.Then next thing he saw was worse: Stan had been reduced to nothing more than a pile of bones that were picked clean.

The trailer rocked once again, sending Jyou flying into a wall.He cried out in pain and surprise, but was unable to regain his balance as the trailer continued to pitch back and forth uncontrollably.

The wall of the trailer that had the door was being twisted as though it was nothing more than paper.

_Whatever's out there knows I'm inside!_ Jyou thought.

Before he was even able to begin to make a plan, he felt himself sailing through the air.Whatever was outside had thrown the trailer through the air.Then that meant…Jyou's eyes widened and he grabbed hold of a doorframe to brace himself when he landed.

With a thud, the trailer landed, but it didn't simply land, it _rolled._Jyou was being bounced around as though he was nothing more than a rag doll, hitting against the walls as they rose up against him and smashed into him.

Finally, the rolling stopped.By some unbelievable stroke of luck, Jyou had not been caught underneath a piece of furniture, which would have probably ensured his death.In fact, besides a minor cut on his leg and some bruises he was unharmed.

All was extremely quiet._It's gone, _he thought.Then he heard a scraping noise.He snapped his attention to the floor (which had actually become the roof) and his mouth dropped open in astonishment.Whatever was outside was peeling back the roof like the lid of a sardine can.

Jyou crawled back, away from the roof that was gradually being reduced to nothing and hit underneath an overturned chair, hoping that whatever was outside wouldn't find him.

There was a moment of silence, and then Jyou heard whatever was outside snort.It was so close he could feel the warmth of its breath as it exhaled.

He suddenly felt an uncontrollable urge to sneeze.Desperately, he held his breath, hoping to keep from making any noise.The feeling passed and he let out his breath, only to end up sneezing so loud it seemed like an explosion.

The chair was suddenly gone and Jyou heard it crash against the wall of the trailer, making the whole structure shake.He looked up into a pair of enormous eyes.They were so big and so close he could see himself reflected in them. 

The head disappeared from the room and Jyou looked up to see what looked like some mutation of a lizard.It was enormous.Jyou was reminded vaguely of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, as it had huge teeth and it stood on its hind legs.But he could see deep slashes in its neck--_gills._And its toes and fingers were webbed, as though it were a swimming reptile.It also was a black color with orange markings all over its body.

It roared and Jyou instinctively covered his ears.Then it lowered its head back into the trailer, coming after him.

Jyou crawled backward into a small bathroom that had been attached to the room he was in.The lizard growled and nosed the trailer again, almost tipping it once again.It tried to fit its snout into the bathroom, but wasn't quite able to go far enough to get Jyou.

_I'm safe, _Jyou thought with a sigh of relief._It can't get me here._

Then he felt himself being lifted in the air and realized that the lizard had picked up the trailer in its mouth.The trailer lurched and Jyou was flung out of the room.

_It's shaking it! _he realized.

The next thing he knew he was knocked out of the trailer and was falling to the ground.He hit with a heavy impact and staggered to his feet, relieved that the lizard hadn't seen him fall out of the trailer.

It was with the utmost surprise when he saw the gun that Stan had been holding before half-buried in the sand.He picked it up, not expecting it to do any good against such a huge creature.

_At least I feel a little better, _he thought._Even though being shot would be like a pinprick to that monster._

_ _

Jyou ran, not wanting to look back at the lizard that was undoubtedly reducing the trailer to nothing.He soon felt panicked when he heard the lizard coming after him.

He looked behind his shoulder and blanched._There's no way I can outrun it!_ he realized.

So he turned and held the gun at ready, knowing it would do no good.The lizard was close enough for him to reach out and touch it before he pulled the trigger aiming at where he supposed its heard was located.

_This is ridiculous!There's no way that tiny little bullet is going to do anything to it!_ his mind was screaming.Of course, it was to his complete and total surprise when the huge beast staggered and fell to the ground.The instant it hit the ground it shimmered and reduced to a small, pure crystal.

Jyou stared, wide-eyed with disbelief at what had happened and absently took the crystal as it floated to him before stepping back--and right through the shimmering door that had appeared behind him….


	10. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.Thanks and enjoy!

The Test--Chapter 10

_Where am I?Am I in Quewari?I don't think the others are with me.I can't hear them.Why am I so tired?My eyes just don't want to open, _Taichi thought._I want to get up, but I just…can't._

_ _

Taichi realized just how cold it was wherever he had ended up and shivered before trying to open his eyes again.It wasn't just cold.It was dark.Even though his eyes were closed, Taichi knew it was extremely dark.Too dark._Way _too dark.He heard something that sounded like somebody walking through pebbles and for a moment thought that was what it was.But then something small hit his arm.

He forced his eyes open, but was only met with darkness.No--it wasn't dark.In fact, come to think of it, he was able to see quite well.The walls and ceiling--_they _were way was dark.He picked up the something that had hit his arm.It was small and in the shape of an irregular sphere or oval and it was a dark black color.The spot where it had hit his arm was smudged a grayish color, like chalk or charcoal_or coal, _he thought.

And that was what had hit him--a piece of coal.The walls and ceiling were dark because they were made of earth that had more of the black coal in it, as was the ceiling.He was lying on a huge pile of coal underneath a large chute.

A rumbling noise above him suddenly began to build and Taichi looked up.Something was falling down the shoot.Something…big.Something…black.He sucked in his breath, realizing belatedly what the something was.It was more coal.A _lot _of _hard _coal.

Quickly, he began to run off of the mountain of coal, only to trip.The coal didn't stop him from sliding down to the bottom, but it did give him plenty of scratches and cuts on the way down.

The moment he was at the bottom, the coal coming down the chute fell into the room.The incoming coal rolled down the sides of the mountain and Taichi quickly covered his head with his arms to prevent any of the coal falling on his head.This ended up scratching his arms badly, but luckily, it was only his arms that received the injuries and not his head.

Once the rain of coal had ended, Taichi got to his feet and looked around.Unfortunately for him, there wasn't any way out.

_Maybe I can climb out the chute, _he considered._But the pile's not high enough for me to reach and the chute's too wide.How can I get out?_

_ _

More rumbling sounded and he quickly moved away from the pile of coal to avoid any more of it falling on him.He watched as more coal hailed down into the room.

_Maybe I can…wait…until the coal fills the room….But how do I get up the chute?Wait for the chute to get filled?_He wondered._No, I'd just end up getting squished underneath all the coal.So then how do I get out of here?Unless…there isn't a way out._

Taichi felt a cold chill wrap around his spine and fan out to every part of his body, forcing him to shake involuntarily.The room was constantly filling with coal.Eventually, there would not be anywhere else for the coal to go.And there was no way out.

_There's a good chance I'll end up dead, _he realized.The thought didn't frighten or alarm him.At least, not yet.Death may be approaching, but it wasn't knocking on his door yet.There was still a chance that he could make it out alive and that chance was the only thing that was keeping him from panicking.

More of the coal flew into the room, rolling down the sides of the huge mountain of black and causing a huge cloud of soot and dust to rise.The addition of more coal caused him to look around once again, searching for any type of exit at all.

The level of coal was climbing at a rapid pace; as it was it had reached halfway up his legs.He quickly stepped on top of the ocean of coal.Things were not looking up for him.Things were definitely not looking up for him.

He looked about, once again trying to find a way out._Nothing, he bitterly thought.__Wait a second….He looked back up at the earthen ceiling and saw that there was a small hole in it.Not a large hole, but a hole nonetheless._

More coal fell into the room and Taichi stepped on top of it._I think I've got a way out, he thought._

After a few minutes of waiting, the coal had nearly reached the ceiling.Being careful to stay away from the coal-spewing chute, Taichi moved over to the hole in the ceiling.He raised his arms above his head and into the hole in the ceiling, feeling for a hold he could use to pull himself out of the room.

The hole was more like a long, vertical tunnel or tube.It was smooth and the loose dirt slipped in his hands.But the coal was rising higher._I've got to get out! Taichi desperately thought._

Digging his hands into the soft dirt, Taichi pulled himself into the smooth tunnel-like way out.He buried his feet in the soil and took one of his hands out of the edge of the tunnel.Inch by inch, he worked his way up the smooth sides, being careful not to slip and fall back down to the coal-filled room.

Eventually, he made it to the top of the tunnel and found himself in a long, dark underground hallway._Great…so I'm in a mine, he thought.__No problem, I can just find my way out._

And his plan would have worked perfectly…if at that moment a paroxysm of pain had not invaded his senses.

Taichi gasped in surprise, taken aback by the assault of pain that stabbed through him, threatening to disable his ability to breathe, to move.It was like needles jabbing into his eyes and through his throat.He was trying to breathe, but no air was reaching his lungs and he was trying to cry out, but of course he was unable to.

He barely noticed when his head met the ground, causing a resounding thud to echo through the hallway.

The application of pain had stopped, but it kept throbbing.He was gasping for breath now, his ability to breathe returning quite suddenly and sweat was pooling around him.Then he began shivering violently, convulsing on the ground.

The pain slowly subsided, leaving Taichi with a lingering cold feeling.Very slowly, he got to his feet, holding the wall for support as his weak knees nearly buckled.He wiped a layer of sweat from his face and sighed.

_What was **that**? He wondered._

His question was abruptly answered when a small, high-pitched voice replied: "**That **was me!"

Light suddenly flooded the hallway and Taichi cried out, rubbing his stinging eyes and looked around.

"Down here, moron!" the voice shrieked."On the ground!"

Taichi looked down and nearly burst out laughing.A tiny, sprite-like creature was dusting itself off and looking rather miffed.

"Well, then just sit there staring instead of saying an apology for stepping on me, you clumsy ox!" the sprite yelled.

"Sorry," Taichi smiled, trying desperately not to laugh and failing.

"Laugh at me again and I'll have to hurt you again, you miserable fool!" 

That was all Taichi could take.He laughed, unable to hold it in.The thought of something that small hurting him was ridiculous!But his laughter was quickly halted when the unbearable pain returned, replaced instead with the throbbing.

He managed to gasp: "stop, please" and the pain resided.

"Now SHUT UP, and LISTEN you naïve."

Taichi nodded, the laughter no longer threatening to burst from his throat.

"I'm glad I got your attention," the sprite said."We are going to fight now.Winner takes all, loser dies."

"You know, I could just…step on you," Taichi warned.

"Go ahead and try it," the sprite encouraged."Just try it."

Taichi looked at the sprite and decided against it, as the creature was smiling maliciously.

"Never mind," he muttered.

"That's what I thought," the sprite muttered."And now we start on the count of three.One…"

"Uh…maybe we should talk this over," Taichi suggested, realizing the small creature was more than likely going to use its ability to hurt him to every extreme.

"Two…"

"Really, people don't like violence," Taichi desperately tried.

"Will you shut that hole in your face?"

Taichi smiled, knowing he had at least momentarily distracted the dangerous thing.

"No.So why do we have to fight?"

"It is required."

"Really?Required?By who?"

The sprite frowned and answered: "it's just required!"

"Oh.Well then you don't really know why we have to fight?"

"I…"

"Nope, didn't think so."

All this time, Taichi had been edging closer and closer to the sprite.As he continued speaking, he very slowly reached his hand out toward the creature.

"So, why do you want to kill me?"

Quite suddenly, the sprite flew straight up in the air, away from Taichi's reach.It laughed a squeaky laugh as it whizzed over his head.

"Thought you'd outsmart me, did you?Nice try," it sneered.Unfortunately, it was unable to regain control of its flight and it hit the ceiling of the hallway.Half the ceiling collapsed, leaving only the part that was above Taichi intact.The sprite was smashed and a pure crystal floated up from the rubble and into his hands.

Taichi barely had time to wonder what the crystal was for before a glowing door underneath him suddenly opened and he fell through….


	11. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction.Thanks and enjoy!

The Test--Chapter 11

When Hikari opened her eyes the first thing she saw was a white blur.As her vision cleared, she realized that she was in a hall with hundreds--no thousands of doors.The hall went on and on until it finally turned a sharp corner, which undoubtedly led to more doors.The halls and doors were all pure white, a white so bright that it hurt her eyes.

_How did I get here? _She wondered.That was when she realized she was alone.None of the others were near her at all._If they're all in one of these rooms I could be here for a long time trying to find them, _she thought._And if they're split up…I could be here forever._

Hikari rubbed her eyes against the blinding white, trying to relieve them of some of the pain, if only temporarily.As she closed her eyes, she wished for the halls to leave, willing it all away, but when she opened them again, the halls were still there, white as ever.

_This is going to be a long…however long I'm going to be here, _Hikari thought.With a sigh, she walked to the door closest to her and opened it--to an empty room._A very long time…._

_ _

She began walking down the hall, opening doors one by one, each leading only to an empty room.

Finally, after an hour of opening doors, Hikari opened a door to something other than an empty room.This room, though it had little to see, had another door in the back wall.

_Hopefully, that's the way out, _she thought.She walked into the room and realized just how cold the room was._Sort of like going outside on a snowy day or walking into an air-conditioned house on a hot day…or walking into a freezer._

_ _

The door suddenly slammed closed behind her and she whirled around, startled, only to slip on a thin layer of ice that coated the floor.

Fear clogged her throat as she reached for the door handle and the fear turned into near panic as she found that the door was locked.

_OK, OK…No big deal.The other door won't be locked, _she decided.She walked across the room and tried the other door, but it, too was locked._It's cold in here.It's so cold._

Hikari shivered and hugged her arms to her chest, trying to retain a little body heat._I wish I had a sweater, _she thought as she glanced at her bare arms.A ¾-length sleeved blouse and a pair of Capri's may have been fine for the weather back at home, but it certainly didn't help her much in a freezer.

_I might freeze to death in here, _she realized._No, no…I can't.I have to get out and find the others.What if they're in the same type of situation as me?_

_ _

The thought of her friends and brother in the same predicament as her hit her like a slap in the face.It actually _hurt._

_I've got to get out of here!_ She desperately thought, running over to the door that led to the unknown.She jiggled the handle, hoping against hope it would yield.

Hikari felt like cursing when the door did not open._I'm trapped in here.If I can't get out I'll either starve to death or die from hypothermia.Either way I'm dead unless somebody can open the door. _

_ _

She sat down on the cold, slippery floor, teeth chattering uncontrollably now._I wonder how long it takes to freeze, anyway?__And why did I pin my hair up today?All these pins are jabbing into my head and it hurts._

_ _

Angrily, she pulled the pins out of her hair and shook her head, letting her brown hair fall into its normal place._Wait a second…the bobby pins…maybe I could pick the lock with one of them, _she thought.In the back of her mind, she realized it probably wasn't going to work, but it was something to do and it offered her the hope that maybe she would escape the room after all.

"How am I supposed to do this?" she muttered, grasping one of the hairpins in her hand and staring at the lock in the door.Tentatively, she inserted the pin into the narrow hole and wiggled it about, trying to find some type of spring or switch; something that would unlock the door.

_This is way harder than it looks in the movies, _she thought._In the movies it's like they stick the pin in the lock and two seconds later the lock's open._

Five minutes later Hikari still had not opened the lock.With a growl of frustration she jerked the pin out of the lock--which caused a faint clicking noise to sound.

Hikari reached down to the doorknob and it turned easily in her hand.She grinned and swung the door open--to _another _hall of doors identical to the first.

_Not **again**! _She despairingly thought.

Once again, she walked down the hall, opening door after door to empty rooms.And once again, after quite some time she came upon another room with a door that opened to a room that had a door on its back wall.

_This **has** to be the way out, _she decided as she stepped into the room.Like before, the door slammed closed behind her and locked.And like before, the door on the other wall was also locked.

But unlike before, this room was not cold.Hikari felt a little better about not having to worry about freezing to death, until a panel toward the ceiling of the room slid open and something fell out, followed by another of the something and another and another.

Hikari gasped, her breath catching in her throat in terror.They were scorpions.And more were entering the room as she watched.

_I'm glad I kept those hairpins, but how can I get out if those scorpions come after me? _Hikari wondered.

Very cautiously, she inserted a hairpin into the lock, the whole time watching the scorpions to make sure they didn't get too close.She wiggled the hairpin in the door for a while, always keeping a wary eye on the scorpions and finally jerked it out to be rewarded with the clicking sound.

But the clicking noise alerted the scorpions of Hikari's presence and they skittered towards her across the floor of the room.

Hikari quickly reached for the door handle and opened the door as one of the scorpions climbed onto her shoe.It took every bit of reserve she had to keep from screaming in panic.

She kicked as hard as she could and the scorpion was thrown off her shoe before she ducked through the door and slammed it behind her.But her relief was short-lived when she realized she was in another hall of doors.

_This is getting ridiculous! _She thought as she began systematically looking in every room.The first room she looked in was a room with a door in the back.She almost walked in, but decided perhaps she should check a few of the other rooms first.

This presented a bit of a problem for her.Every room now had a door at the back.

_Now what do I do? _She wondered as she opened yet another door.After a few more minutes of searching, she decided to simply go into the next room she entered, as there was no way to tell which room was the correct one to enter.

As she opened the door, the handle seemed almost to give off an electrical pulse into her hands and caused her hair to stand on end in excitement._This is the door, _she thought.

Quickly, she flung it open and walked ran inside.The door promptly slammed closed behind her.No doubt about it: this was the room, all right.Besides the door, there was something else in it as well: a person dressed entirely in black casually waving a butcher's knife around.

When the person saw Hikari, they charged at her, holding the butcher's knife high above their head.This caused Hikari to panic and she ducked, narrowly missing having her head being lacerated.

She still had the hairpins, but what good would hairpins do her when a psycho murderer was coming after her.

_How else can I unlock doors? _She wondered._There's no key._

_ _

She ducked, once again narrowly missing being killed by a swipe of the knife.Then a solution came to her: _I heard that if you kicked a lock very hard it would break and you could get in--or out…._

_ _

But she was running around the perimeter of the room, the person with the knife after her.How was she supposed to get the time to stop and kick the lock?

Hikari looked back over her shoulder and decided she could give the lock a try.If she were lucky, she would be able to dodge the blow that would be coming to her.

Very quickly, she stopped in front of the door and kicked the handle square on the lock.To her complete and utter surprise and relief, the door swung open upon contact.She raced through and threw it closed behind her, keeping the person with the knife inside.

Once she realized where she was, Hikari groaned in frustration.She was in another hall.But there was something slightly different about this hall.She could hear something--no someone.Somebody with a familiar voice was shouting out, pounding on one of the doors.

_It's Takeru, _she realized.But that wasn't the only voice. There were many more.Nine more, to be perfectly exact.

Hikari ran forward, guided by the pounding and stopped in front of a door that was a little different from the others.This one was bright red.

"Is anybody out there?" came Mimi's voice, though it was somewhat muffled through the door.

Mimi's shout was accompanied by more pounding on the door.

"I'm here!" Hikari announced.

"Hikari?" Takeru's voice shouted through the heavy, red door.

"Yes," Hikari confirmed."How did you all get in there?"

"Well…It's kind of a long story," Yamato answered."Could you get us out of here first?"

"Oh, sorry," Hikari replied.She opened the door and all nine of her friends and her brother left the room.

Just as the door was closing, Mimi shouted: "wait!Look at the back wall!There's a door back there now!"

Indeed, a door was in the back wall of the room the ten former Digidestined's had been in.

"I'll bet anything it's locked," Hikari muttered.

The door was locked, just as Hikari thought.But it was easily opened when Hikari kicked the lock.

This time, instead of leading to a new hall of doors, it led to a large room with a crystal mounted on a pedestal in the center of the room.On the back wall of this room was a huge gate with eleven holes in it.

The crystal suddenly rose off the pedestal and floated into Hikari's hands.Once the crystal touched Hikari's hands, the door closed behind them.

The second the door closed, the eleven crystals the former Digidestined's had acquired through their adventures floated away from their owners and each floated into a separate slot in the gate.

"What's happening?" Miyako wondered.

No sooner had the words left her mouth when the crystals glowed a bright white light and the gates slowly swung open.

All eleven of them were sucked into the glowing gate.

"Hey!What's going on?" Taichi shouted.

Congratulations.You have all passed the test….

End

(A/N: *Whew*That took longer than expected!Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed.It means a lot to me to see what people think of my writing.And now I'll write the final part of my "Armageddon" series.It's going to be all in one story.No parts.Just one huge story, so it might take a while to get put up.I think it'll be called "War to End All Wars."Now I'll quit babbling and get started on it….)


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